
Class Z-i 

Book L 

CopyrightN?_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 



NEW NERVES 
FOR OLD 



" BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW " 



BY 

ARTHUR A. CAREY 




BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
1914 






Copyright, 1914, 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 

All rights reserved 



Published, September, 1914 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 



0CT-5U9I. 



CI.A380726 






GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 



annie JJapson Call 



HEALTH 

When souls are sick, 
From no mere health of body can there 
flow 
In them the needful leaven; 
But truth and love and useful work be- 
stow 
The happy health of heaven. 

Both love and hate 

Cannot dwell always in one soul, nor 
may 
The power of heaven and hell; 
So hate and hell must flee some blessed 
day — 
Then will the soul be well. 



CONTENTS 



I. Introduction . 

II. Body, Mind, and Spirit 

III. The Training of the Will 

IV. Non-resistance 
V. Balance 

VI. The Power of Habit . 

VII. Appearances and Reality 

VIII. Stagnation and Life 

IX. Nerves and Civilization 

X. Social Pride and Contempt 

XI. Chastity 

XII. Spiritual Manhood 

XIII. The Spiritual Life 

XIV. The Spiritual World 
XV. Genuine Love . 

XVI. Summing Up 
Appendix . 



1 
11 

40 
77 
102 
117 
128 
142 
156 
166 
177 
189 
214 
228 
243 
255 
263 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

Chapter I 
Introduction 

AS sick nerves seem to be the great 
American disease, and as there 
exists still so much misunder- 
standing about them among people in 
general, and so superficial an understand- 
ing of them in the medical profession, 
it seems obvious that anything that has 
proved useful in their relief or cure 
should be put within the reach of suffer- 
ers. This is all the more so because, of 
all diseases, it appears to be the one 
which is most affected by the mental 

1 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

and moral attitude of the patient him- 
self and least under the direct influence 
of external remedies. 

The following suggestions and reflec- 
tions are made without any claim to 
scientific authority or to anything like 
a complete knowledge of the subject, 
but as a result of long experience with 
the actual facts and conditions of nerv- 
ous suffering, and long and careful 
observation of the practical effects of 
certain working principles in dealing 
with them. 

There are many people whose lives 
are heavily burdened in this way without 
their knowing in the least what is at the 
root of their troubles. Their sufferings, 
moreover, are often complicated and in- 
creased by the fact that they do not 
distinguish between the symptoms which 

2 



INTRODUCTION 

are beyond their control and those for 
which they are morally responsible. The 
consequence is — in the case of conscien- 
tious people — that a sense of self-re- 
proach is often added to the nervous 
suffering, which is increased by the inno- 
cent brutality of unintelligent and well- 
meaning friends, and which puts an 
unfair and terrible weapon into the hands 
of the malicious and the prejudiced. It 
is hard to imagine a more difficult posi- 
tion than that of a sufferer without the 
strength required to do what he con- 
siders his duty, blaming himself igno- 
rantly for his very weakness and suffering, 
making obvious mistakes which diminish 
his efficiency and alienate his friends, and 
frequently preserving all through this the 
outward appearance of ordinary health. 
Under such circumstances, considering 

3 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

the common frailty of human nature, it 
is not strange that the weakness of self- 
pity frequently appears to undermine 
still further the reserves of moral 
strength. 

To the writer it seems that there is a 
deeper significance in such experiences 
than appears on the surface, and that 
they are full of possibilities of a new kind 
of strength, wisdom, and character, dif- 
ferent and more lasting than falls to the 
lot of people in the ordinary experiences 
of life. 

The peculiarity of the ordeal lies in its 
helplessness. Most trials — even of the 
tragic kind — bring with them a certain 
sense of strength when they are faced and 
borne with endurance and determination. 
But in these nervous trials the very root 
of the trouble, seems to lie in the loss of 

4 



INTRODUCTION 

power to endure and in the sense that the 
ordinary underpinnings of life are giving 
way. Our abilities — that we felt proud 
of, — our physical strength, our social 
position, our wealth, — all these things 
bring us no comfort; and the old consola- 
tions of friendship are frequently im- 
paired by misunderstandings and the 
inability to unburden our hearts for fear 
that we may lose all self-control, and with 
it the remnants of our self-respect. But 
this dread, too, has in many cases to be 
realized, and we break down utterly, 
without the least remaining shadow of 
pride or dignity. 

Despair is the temptation that besets 
the sufferer at this stage; but, if he can 
be surrounded by the right kind of moral 
atmosphere, it may prove, when con- 
quered, the very best preparation for a 

5 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

genuine trust in God; and, if he can seek 
and find that simple and ancient remedy 
for human ills (so unfashionable now in 
the midst of religious conventionality 
and scientific complacency), he will have 
found a key which will unlock door after 
door, — leading finally to the great out- 
of-doors where the human consciousness, 
having thrown away the dross of self 
and the cheap trappings of pride, will 
feel itself honored only by the fact of 
being a child of God and a brother and 
companion of all his creatures. Here 
dependence upon a divine Father be- 
comes a joy and strength never before 
dreamed of, and here we begin to recog- 
nize also that our individual weakness 
is but a partial revelation of the univer- 
sal human weakness, which is only glossed 
over by the false starch of pride and 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

pretense, and ultimately leaves us help- 
less whenever the inevitable failure of 
physical strength appears, unless we have 
laid hold of a higher strength than our 
own. 

The consciousness of our helplessness, 
then, makes it possible for us to receive 
the guidance which all men need, — the 
daily supply of light and warmth, through 
the " Spirit of Truth," of penitence, and 
trust in God; and we begin to appre- 
ciate what Jesus meant when he said 
that we must all become " as little chil- 
dren." 

This interpretation of the experiences 
of nervous suffering, when it is under- 
stood and finally accepted as self-evident, 
forms the only true basis for permanent 
cure. But it is because the cure itself 
has become a matter of secondary im- 

7 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

portance. We have learnt that our suf- 
ferings are capable of teaching us lessons 
infinitely more valuable than the mere 
well-being of physical health, and there- 
fore we no longer resist them — we ac- 
cept them with the utmost degree of 
willingness of which we are capable, 
praying always that we may become 
more willing as time goes on; and by 
this growing willingness of the spirit the 
strain of nervous tension is eased and 
the suffering itself is diminished. 

Thus relief comes not only as a bless- 
ing in itself, when the end of pain has 
been accomplished, but as part of a far 
greater blessing in a deeper understand- 
ing and appreciation of life. We have 
changed our point of view from that of a 
suffering individual, whose strength and 
vitality have been taken away from him, 

8 



INTRODUCTION 

to that of an individual who shares in the 
strength of a larger life than his own 
which he knows can never be taken away 
so long as he does his duty as a part of 
the whole — remembering his true func- 
tion as a servant and beneficiary, grate- 
fully receiving and enjoying his bless- 
ings, but renouncing the false responsi- 
bilities of self-importance and never 
claiming anything for self. 

In the succeeding pages I will try to 
show that a false and ignorant point of 
view is at the root of many forms of 
nervous suffering, and that it can be 
cured in most cases by a careful study 
and application of the principles which 
are necessary to support a wholesome, 
humble, and happy attitude toward life, 
when it is gratefully accepted as a gift 
from the " Father of lights, in whom is 

9 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

no variableness nor shadow of turn- 
mg. 

All the chapters following the next 
one are given up to various aspects of 
life affecting nervous strain from a some- 
what broader point of view, and it is be- 
lieved that their connection with the 
struggles and victories of nervous suffer- 
ing are sufficiently obvious to require no 
explanation. 

But it is necessary to consider the fact 
that the disease — whatever its ulti- 
mate cause — has distinctly physical 
symptoms which should be met with 
physical remedies, — not in the form of 
drugs or external stimulation, but (in 
addition to proper rest and nourishment) 
in the form of physical relaxation. 



10 



Chapter II 
Body, Mind, and Spirit 

THE immediate and visible con- 
dition of nervous suffering is 
abnormal strain or tension of 
the nerves and muscles. A little obser- 
vation will reveal the fact that what we 
call " nervous motions " are jerky move- 
ments resulting from abnormal contrac- 
tion- A sudden fright may automatically 
produce a contraction of the muscles and 
nerves in the region of the stomach, or, 
it may be, throughout the whole body, 
and in consequence we draw in our 
breath quickly and spasmodically. Any 
unexpected mental shock will often pro- 

11 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

duce contractions of this kind and thus 
impede the normal circulation. This, of 
course, is a physical effect from a mental 
cause. 

At first these contractions seem to fol- 
low immediately upon some correspond- 
ing mental impulse, such as fear, anxiety 
or over-intense desire and effort; and, 
when such mental impulses occur very 
frequently, a habit of contraction of the 
muscles and nerves becomes established, 
until in the end the nervous and muscu- 
lar contraction becomes chronic and a 
permanent state of inferior circulation is 
induced. This habit of physical con- 
traction is accompanied by a correspond- 
ing mental condition in which the sensa- 
tions of fear, over-intensity, etc., remain, 
as it were, locked up and ready to make 
their appearance whenever occasion pre- 

12 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

sents itself. The physical contraction 
accompanies mental states of depression 
and exhaustion, and forms — so to speak 

— a thick wall or crust of dryness which 
keeps the natural energy of the nerves 
imprisoned, so that they no longer react 

— except heavily and with great diffi- 
culty — to the demands of the will. The 
fight of the will against this imprisoning 
wall — without the knowledge of how 
to loosen and relax the bonds of contrac- 
tion — is a discouraging, uphill struggle 
in which many sufferers are engaged, 
and in which strain and effort lead to 
greater and greater exhaustion with a cor- 
responding increase of discouragement. 

To learn how to relax these bonds of 
contraction and the abnormal tension of 
nerves and muscles systematically and 
persistently is the first step in the prac- 

13 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

tical cure of nervous disorder when it 
exists without any organic disease; and, 
even in the presence of organic disease, 
nervous suffering may thus be much 
softened though not wholly cured. Fear 
of a disease or annoyance at its presence 
may contract the body so that the circu- 
lation may be seriously impeded and the 
healing power of nature be proportion- 
ately interfered with. People sometimes 
suffer from severe colds for weeks when 
they might have recovered from them in 
days, or almost in as many hours, if they 
had dropped their nervous resistances and 
consequently their contractions. An in- 
stance of the effect of such resistances and 
contractions is that of a young woman 
who kept herself nervously ill for years 
by constantly surrendering to a bitter 
discontent at not being physically strong, 

14 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

and by thus exhausting the strength she 
had, instead of using it in sensible and 
helpful ways. One peculiarity of this 
unhappy patient was that, although she 
professed to believe in religion, she re- 
fused to humble herself sufficiently to 
pray. This was the result of an inherited 
pride which added much to the strain of 
her condition. 

In contrast to this it may be interest- 
ing to cite the case of another person 
who, by forming the habit of patience 
and non-resistance, succeeded through a 
period of years — in spite of intense and 
prolonged sufferings — in doing a great 
deal of useful work and ultimately leading 
a deeply happy life. In this case the habit 
of prayer was an essential factor of the 
cure, and the cure itself resulted in what 
seemed a transformation of character. 

15 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

In all such cases and many others the 
beginning of relief can be found through 
an intelligent effort to drop the physical 
contractions. This habit of relaxation 
can be brought about by practising regu- 
lar, rhythmical exercises in deep breath- 
ing, by exercises to loosen the contrac- 
tions which produce the familiar sharp 
and dry quality of a nervous voice, and 
by exercises which counteract the con- 
tractions existing in the arms, legs, neck, 
and back, — and, in fact, in every part 
of the body. But the difficulty is that 
to practise these exercises, concentration 
is necessary; and, in such states of nerv- 
ous tension, the effort to concentrate is 
always associated with special intensity 
and contraction of the nerves; so that, 
when the habit of contraction is volun- 
tarily abandoned, it seems at first im- 

16 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

possible to make any strong effort, and 
an entirely new habit must be formed 
which associates the strongest concen- 
tration with patient loosening from con- 
traction, and with a quiet, unintense 
activity of mind. 

It is this morbid association of con- 
centrated effort with contraction of the 
nerves that makes the struggle of the 
will against the imprisoning wall of 
habitual and rigid tension so hopeless 
without intelligent and sympathetic in- 
struction. For, without the knowledge 
of how to relax the muscles and nerves, 
every effort of the will exerted to counter- 
act the paralyzing effect of nervous ten- 
sion increases the tension itself by the 
contraction of the nerves with which 
each effort is accompanied. 

For instance, a young man who was a 
17 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

good tennis player and had a strong 
physique was gradually overtaken by 
nervous suffering as a result of worries 
which he did not know how to control. 
To his companions he seemed merely 
self-absorbed, and his morbid peculiari- 
ties were ridiculed with a certain amount 
of contempt. His friends would urge 
him to play tennis, and, with the idea 
that he must distract himself and think 
of other people, he would assent and 
play set after set without great apparent 
weakness, but with the greatest subse- 
quent exhaustion. His effort forcibly to 
separate his mind from his suffering led 
him into deeper suffering, and the strained 
exercise of his will appeared to make it 
weaker than it was before. 

It is a vicious circle from which the 
effort to escape through blind and ex- 

18 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

hausting struggle leads to ever-increasing 
weakness and a further closing in of the 
prison walls; but, as the patient gradu- 
ally learns, by quiet and persistent prac- 
tice, to relax his tense muscles and 
nerves, the old association of effort with 
over-intensity gives way to a new asso- 
ciation, — that of concentration with 
physical relaxation and gentleness. With 
this new habit of quiet physical motion, 
unaccompanied by the old intensity and 
rigidity, the relief and comfort of a freer 
circulation begins to be felt; and this, 
of course, brings encouragement and 
hope. 

A number of physical exercises to re- 
move the strain of nerves have been 
designed in well-proportioned series, an 
account of which will be found in the 
appendix; but, if the principle under- 

19 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

lying them is properly grasped, any in- 
telligent person can invent others which 
will have a beneficial effect. The main 
object of them is two-fold: first, as has 
been said, to relieve the sufferer from 
the pressure of physical contraction 
and strain; and secondly, — as a conse- 
quence of this — to uncover the mental 
causes of strain — such as fear, anger, 
jealousy, vanity, unyielding grief, — in 
connection with specific facts, which will 
be found to underlie them. It is inter- 
esting to know that, so long as a patient 
is in the thraldom of physical contrac- 
tion, it is difficult for him to see clearly 
or to understand intelligently the mental 
or spiritual causes which are at the root of 
his suffering; but, when the weight of 
physical contraction has begun to yield, 
the mental sufferings come up to the 

20 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

consciousness with greater clearness and 
can therefore be dealt with more effect- 
ively. 

But the practice of these exercises often 
reveals a great lack of the power of 
concentration in the patient. After the 
first interest of novelty has worn off, a 
certain degree of persistence is required 
to go through them with the right 
amount of attention and care, and a lack 
of patience and persistence reveals weak- 
ness existing in the concentrating power 
of the will. It is most natural that, when 
the nervous system has formed habits of 
contraction in the effort to react against 
impulses of fear or anger, it should be 
difficult and disagreeable for the nerves 
to reverse the process which has become 
habitual to them, and to accept new 
habits of the opposite kind — habits of 

21 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

gentle, and steady, and continuous motion 
— in their place. The force of habit is, 
as we all know, one of the strongest fac- 
tors we have to deal with in human life; 
and, in the case of hyper-sensitive nerves, 
it is particularly trying to reverse and 
change old physical habits even when 
they are the cause of suffering. 

Thus it will be seen that the training 
of nerves and muscles out of states of 
abnormal contraction involves the train- 
ing of the will in patience and concentra- 
tion, in order to teach the new lesson 
that concentration is more vigorous and 
effective when accompanied by quietness 
and persistence, than it is when joined 
with spasmodic intensity. If exercises in 
relaxation were to be done purely me- 
chanically and without the active, willing 
cooperation of the patient himself, they 

22 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

would not result in any change of habit 
in the nerves. The old habit would re- 
assert itself as soon as the exercise was 
finished, and the muscles and nerves 
would slip back into their accustomed 
contractions with the same ease as that 
with which a rubber band shrinks into 
its original size when tension is removed. 
The exercises, to be curative, must draw 
out the cooperation of both intelligence 
and will, and must train both the mind 
and the body to work in conformity with 
a new standard of quiet, continuous, and 
vigorous motion. 

In learning to acquire the new power 
of concentration necessary to form these 
habits of freedom from strain, all sorts 
of difficulties present themselves, which 
must, one by one, be overcome. All sorts 
of plausible reasons and excuses arise, — 

23 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

reasons for not persisting in the course 
already chosen, and excuses to explain 
away the weakness of will — the self- 
indulgence — which shrinks from the 
drudgery of monotonous perseverance. 
Thus the process of cure by relaxation 
becomes more and more a matter of 
strengthening the will, or character, or 
spirit; and establishing, through strong 
concentration, its normal command over 
the body; and less and less a mere matter 
of relaxing physical strain alone. The 
deeper we get into the work of cure, after 
beginning with the physical symptoms of 
muscular and nervous contraction, the 
more our attention becomes directed 
toward the training of the will, which, 
with the power of thinking, forms what 
we call our character. 

This fact is further emphasized by the 
24 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

effect, already mentioned, of physical 
relaxation upon the mind. The nervous 
contractions which, by gradual accumu- 
lation, form permanent habits of strain 
and rigidity, spring from spontaneous 
but weak impulses of the will to protect 
itself from the effects of painful or vio- 
lent emotion. Granted the presence of 
such a degree of fear or anger, for in- 
stance, in a young, ignorant, inexperi- 
enced, and at the same time sensitive 
person, the impulse to contract the 
nerves and muscles of the body is an in- 
stinctive effort to put on the brakes and 
to set up a barrier against an emotion 
which might otherwise be overwhelming 
and humiliating. The contractions are 
the result of an undeveloped and ignorant 
instinct of self-preservation against the 
obvious and painful effects of unre- 

25 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

strained emotion, — and the fatigue and 
strain which is caused by these contrac- 
tions, when they become habitual, is due 
to the fact that the inhibiting power of 
the will upon which we rely to put on the 
brakes is too feeble to control the emo- 
tion. Unless the inhibiting power of the 
will can be strengthened and enabled to 
work without any nervous and muscular 
contraction, the result of such a condition 
must inevitably be a further weakening 
of the power of inhibition until the 
brakes wear out and the unrestrained 
emotions overflow the bounds of proper 
balance and reserve. Such an absence 
of self-control as this is characteristic of 
states of nervous breakdown, and it rep- 
resents the normal process of nature in 
its striving for readjustment and health. 
For the breaking down of the nerves, 

26 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

although accompanied with great suffer- 
ing, affords an opportunity of rest which 
was impossible, either by night or by day, 
so long as they were in a state of chronic 
tension with no way open toward relaxa- 
tion and the softening of the physical 
strain. 

The opportunity to relax and rest 
which nature gives to a strained and 
suffering patient through the more or 
less violent crises of nervous breakdown 
may be provided in a more gradual, 
regular, and gentle manner through the 
relaxing exercises above mentioned. But 
it must be observed that, when the habit 
of putting on the brakes in emotional 
excitement by contractions of the nerves 
is given up, there must intervene a time 
and state of comparative helplessness 
before a new and deeper habit of self- 

27 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

control — based upon intelligence, and 
will, and love of principle — has been 
established. It will be seen that, if the 
cure is to be thorough and permanent, it 
is necessary that the superficial inhibition 
of spasmodic contraction should be dis- 
carded, and that a new and stronger 
habit of inhibition should take its place 
in the deeper region of the intelligence 
and will. 

This means, of course, that the new 
habit must form part of the character 
itself, and must be based upon a convic- 
tion of the truth of moral or spiritual 
law; and that the impulses of fear, anger, 
or resentment, which hitherto have been 
met with nervous resistance, shrinking, 
or other forms of contraction, must now 
be met, without excitement or contrac- 
tions of any kind, as temptations to sin, 

28 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

as ugly weaknesses of character springing 
from self-love. 

In some cases such a degree of charac- 
ter undoubtedly exists, in the same per- 
son, alongside of contraction and strain, 
and the difficulty is principally that of 
the patient's ignorance of the nature of 
his trouble and of the forces at his com- 
mand. In such cases the old shallow 
habits of contraction can be cast off like 
heavy outer garments or encumbering 
chains, leaving the character and the 
spirit free to assert its normal power and 
dignity in self-control, while, at the same 
time, relieving the nerves. But in many 
other cases, and especially among the 
young or inexperienced, there is no such 
underlying character already formed; 
and, in these cases, the cure of sick 
nerves involves nothing less than a train- 

29 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

ing in character, or a re-education of the 
heart and mind in accordance with the 
fundamental laws of life. 

While, by the exercises, the old habits 
of physical contraction are being under- 
mined, the nerves relaxed, and the will 
trained in quiet concentration, the men- 
tal causes of strain in the past, many of 
which may be lying forgotten, or half- 
forgotten, in the subconscious mind, will 
be brought under review; and these may 
be removed in retrospect by the frank 
acknowledgment of the moral or mental 
weakness which originally caused the 
strain, and by seizing the first oppor- 
tunity to act from a different spirit, with 
humble confidence in a higher power than 
our own. Such moral or mental weak- 
ness need not, of course, imply guilt, 
for it may be caused by hereditary tend- 

30 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

ency; but it nevertheless is an ante- 
cedent cause, without which the original 
mental shock, or series of shocks, need 
not have resulted in strain. No matter 
how great the shock, the calamity, or the 
overwork in connection with which the 
strain was originally brought to light, 
it is inconceivable that its effect could 
not have been sufficiently softened or 
modified to prevent strain, if the mental 
attitude of the patient had been softened 
and controlled by a sufficient degree of 
wise patience and gentle non-resistance. 
It is not an uncommon experience for a 
person who is quietly doing the relaxing 
exercises to break out in a burst of irri- 
tability or anger; and, as the words rush 
out of his mouth, you find that he is 
talking of something which happened 
months — perhaps years — ago. The 

31 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

best help is given then by encouraging 
him to let it out until he has relieved the 
repressed feeling, helping him to face the 
whole thing squarely, to drop the re- 
sistance to it, and then get rid of it 
forever. A burst of grief is equally — 
perhaps more — common, especially in 
women, and should be met in the same 
way. 

" Forget it, forget it," is the usual ex- 
pression regarding a painful experience, 
but you cannot forget it. If you think 
you have forgotten it, you have only 
pushed it into the background of your 
brain, and it is sure to reappear some 
time or other with stubborn insistence. 
Only by facing it first in the right spirit 
can we learn to drop it cleanly, and so 
find permanent relief. 

Sensitive people are often tormented 
32 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

by the sufferings of their vanity or self- 
consciousness in retrospect; and, in the 
case of nervous disease, these resuscita- 
tions of old mistakes and humiliations 
frequently take possession of the brain 
and reduce it for the time to stagnant 
impotence. It is a difficult and delicate 
task to arouse both the intelligence and 
the will to meet the necessities of such 
a situation. It requires that we should 
accept the fact that we have made fools 
of ourselves, or even worse, not with the 
artificial laughter of self-ridicule which 
only covers up the shame, but with the 
simple and genuine recognition that what 
concerns our vanity alone cannot possibly 
be of any lasting consequence. This, we 
find, is only a view from another angle 
of the truth that self-love is at the bot- 
tom of all nervous suffering, and that we 

33 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

only truly begin to live wholesomely as 
the self begins to die. 

It is likely that harmful and foolish 
suggestions made to children, when they 
are very young, may develop tendencies 
to similar follies on a larger scale when 
they have grown up. A man in middle 
life, for instance, remembered his suffer- 
ing as a child from the presence of a mole 
upon his body of which some vulgar 
person, whom he had forgotten, had 
taught him to be ashamed. Many in- 
stances could be brought up of appar- 
ently trivial experiences which conveyed 
a subtle poison, to lie dormant in the 
subconscious mind and ultimately assert 
itself in various painful forms. Other 
experiences which are not trivial are often 
pushed into the background of the mind 
and seem forgotten for years until they 

34 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

are brought to the surface of the con- 
sciousness by the " opening up " effect 
of relaxation. 

Thus by the " opening up" of the 
book of his past experience, the patient 
gains the opportunity of revising his 
past life, recognizing his mistakes, and 
correcting his judgments; and, by this 
process, the psychological burdens of 
unfortunate life-histories are often much 
lightened or entirely removed. Hence 
the process of cure, which originally 
began with the effort to counteract the 
external symptoms of physical contrac- 
tion in the muscles and nerves, is ex- 
tended to a deeper field of action in the 
spiritual consciousness — the prof ounder 
region of the heart and mind where con- 
siderations of conscience hold the place 
of first importance, and where a clear, 

35 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

reasonable, and healthy conscience is 
necessary to contentment. 

But the very use of the words " spir- 
itual consciousness " implies that we 
recognize a spiritual cause behind the 
phenomena of conscience and charac- 
ter; — and so we are led, finally, to a 
recognition, first, of spiritual law as the 
basis of character; secondly, to a recog- 
nition of the necessity of acknowledging 
our mistakes in the past and present; 
and, thirdly, to the necessity of relaxing 
all the physical contractions of the 
nerves. This is the order of cause and 
effect, — the original difficulty being in 
weakness of character, either personal 
or inherited, leading to moral errors or 
mistakes of judgment, and, finally, to 
physical lack of balance and weakness; 
but the reverse order is that in which a 

36 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

cure would, in most cases, be wisely 
approached: the loosening of the con- 
tractions of the body, the acknowledg- 
ment and correction of mistakes and 
false judgments, and the recognition of 
spiritual responsibility as the funda- 
mental obligation of life. In other words, 
we begin with relieving the body, and go on 
to repentance and trust in God. 

Under no other circumstances can we 
appreciate more forcibly the wisdom of 
the old proverb: "Fools rush in where 
angels fear to tread," than in those of 
nervous suffering and cure. It cannot 
be urged too strongly that the one essen- 
tial in such treatment as is described here 
(apart from the patient himself) is an 
atmosphere of warm and yet impersonal 
affection in the physician or friend in 
charge. The elements of cure lie deeper 

37 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

than the utmost skill of science or of any 
mere intellectual ingenuity; they must 
include an atmosphere of companionship 
and wholesome sympathy in making all 
the necessary sacrifices of self which are 
demanded in the cleansing of the mind. 
But it is not necessary that the sick 
should be cared for by the sick alone to 
bring about this curative and encoura- 
ging influence. We shall find that the 
necessity for giving up the demands of 
self-love and exaggerated self-importance, 
which the cure of nerves demands, leads 
to a recognition of this same necessity as 
a universal principle — for both sick 
and well; but the animal spirits of 
health and the natural pride of well-being 
act as a screen, until sympathy and dis- 
cernment have shown us our true rela- 
tion to life and the meaning of its laws. 

38 



BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT 

The delicacy of the task calls for 
practical reverence in dissociating in- 
evitable weaknesses from a fellow man 
or woman, and so not confirming or 
emphasizing the mental rubbish which is 
being cast off by a struggling soul. The 
strength of it calls for loyalty to principle, 
when our natural sympathies tend to 
weak excuses and a glossing over of the 
truth, which can only bring more con- 
fusion in the end. Hence, when it is our 
privilege to lead a fellow wayfarer toward 
the light to which his eyes are not yet 
accustomed, our first demand upon our- 
selves should be that we keep our own 
hearts in union with the realities of life 
and not with its mere appearances, sen- 
sations, or conventionalities. 



39 



Chapter III 
The Training of the Will 

THE will, as the seat of our affec- 
tions, is the most important 
element of our being. It is the 
essence of the man himself, and therefore, 
in all kinds of human service, it should 
logically be given an important place. 
In schools, in churches, in hospitals, es- 
pecially in hospitals for the insane, in re- 
formatories and prisons, wherever we 
try to benefit our brothers and sisters in 
methodical ways, one would think that 
the education and training of the will 
would be the first subject of scientific 
study and loving effort. For the training 

40 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

of the will means the building up of char- 
acter, and character underlies everything 
that is most useful, beautiful, and joyful 
in human life. 

But, as a matter of fact, we do not find 
the training of the will scientifically 
systematized as we do the training of the 
intellect. It is unnecessary to point out 
the high state of development attained 
by educational science throughout the 
civilized world; but when we use the 
word " education," we are apt to mean 
too much the training of the intellect 
alone. Even in our churches and Sunday- 
schools, where the influences exercised 
are intended to appeal to the heart as 
well as to the mind, there is little or noth- 
ing done, so far as can be generally seen, 
actually to train the will. Even the 
necessity or desirability for such training 

41 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

is very largely unknown or ignored until 
some acute crisis occurs in which it is 
obvious that nothing but an increased 
power in the will can save a man from 
disaster. Even then, how helpless we 
are ! We find ourselves trying to befriend 
a poor drunkard; we know that nothing 
can help him but increased power in his 
own will. Again and again we turn away 
because we do not know how to help him. 
We say : " Poor fellow, he is weak ! It is a 
disease! We must not condemn him! ? 
And then we leave him to his fate. 

Is there then no hope for a weak will? 
Is there no way of obeying the command 
of divine compassion to ll6 bind up the 
broken-hearted "? For what is a broken 
heart but a heart that has lost the power 
of its love, a will that has succumbed and 
become subservient to its grief? Is there 

42 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

no way in which we can teach our brother 
to train his own will? 

If we turn to modern science, we find 
its answer perfectly clear and entirely 
negative. I was much interested not 
long ago to hear what Professor Janet, 
the distinguished French psychologist, 
had to say about psycho-therapeutics or 
mental healing by means of hypnotism. 
He spoke, among other things, of the 
cure of drunkenness and of diseases 
comprised under the head of what is 
called " hysteria," a condition very fre- 
quently accompanied by weakness of the 
will. But his attempt at cure was invari- 
ably made by the operation of his own 
will upon the patient's subconscious mind, 
without the cooperation or even con- 
sciousness of the patient himself. He 
puts the patient into a hypnotic trance 

43 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

in which his normal consciousness is 
suspended and what is known as his 
subconsciousness becomes amenable to 
suggestion. In this state the patient is 
told that he really does not like liquor, or 
whatever the suggestion may be, and, on 
awaking from his abnormal state, he finds 
his morbid appetite diminished, and 
under continuous treatment, it has in 
very many cases been entirely removed; 
not, however, in such a way as to render 
the patient independent of the treatment; 
for, as Professor Janet admits, the pa- 
tient becomes more and more, instead of 
less and less, dependent upon the sug- 
gestions of the operator. In a normal 
man his baser appetites are under the 
control of his own will; and, indeed, the 
principal way in which he at first becomes 
conscious of his higher nature is by the 

44 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

combats through which the lower is 
subdued. Moreover, his higher nature 
cannot assert itself victoriously without 
the endurance of suffering; and, by the 
patient and willing endurance of suffer- 
ing, the good affections of his will are 
sweetened and strengthened, and his 
baser appetites are overcome. In the 
hypnotic treatment none of this disci- 
pline exists, for the patient has, in his 
waking state, no consciousness and no 
memory of the suggestions he has re- 
ceived. He has no suffering, no effort, 
and no victory; and it is not surprising 
that, even when apparently cured, he 
should be unable to stand alone. Pro- 
fessor Janet disclaims any moral in- 
fluence over his patients. 

Although this method, which is en- 
tirely in harmony with modern material- 

45 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

ism, while supplanting the normal action 
of the will, does not even pretend to cure 
or strengthen the will itself, it is instruct- 
ive as showing us its dry mechanism, 
according to modern psychology. It 
does not concern itself with the motive 
power, as we may call the moral or 
spiritual force from which the will must 
derive its vitality; but it does reveal, 
in a general way, the manner in which 
the will, when alive and guided by true 
principles, may affect and change the 
habits, character, and even in some cases 
the physical ailments of the man. The 
center of this mechanism is what is called 
the subconsciousness or the subliminal 
consciousness, a state of intelligence 
within us of which we are not normally 
conscious at all, and which is revealed in 
the conditions known under the general 

46 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

head of hypnotic trance. This subcon- 
scious mind is the medium which accepts 
the suggestions of the hypnotic operator, 
and through which these suggestions 
produce their effect upon the conscious 
mind, and even the physical states of the 
subject. It is through the subconscious 
mind that both mental and physical cures 
are effected. When received directly 
into this subconscious mind ideas are 
developed into working efficiency and 
produce practical results; whereas, if they 
were merely addressed to the ordinary 
consciousness, they would meet with 
resistance and produce no results what- 
ever. But even Professor Janet acknowl- 
edges that by hard work and persistent 
effort, — that is, of course, by the active 
exercise of the will, — we can produce 
effects in ourselves similar to those 

47 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

produced upon patients in the hypnotic 
trance. 

It is very difficult, because it involves 
the change of habits, and habits are ideas 
and affections already established in the 
subconscious mind by inheritance or 
frequently repeated action of the will. 
If such established habits need to be 
changed, the will must make a strong 
effort and continue that effort persist- 
ently in order to make the change per- 
manent. At first the necessary effort is 
so severe that it must be sometimes even 
painful; and, when the effort has ceased 
to be painful, it means that the new sug- 
gestion has been accepted by the sub- 
conscious mind; when the effort has 
ceased to be fatiguing, it means that it 
has begun to develop strength in the sub- 
conscious mind; and, when it has become 

48 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

so easy as to be almost automatic, it 
means that the subconscious mind has 
fully accepted the suggestions and 
authority of the will. A strong will, then, 
if we adopt for a moment the terms of 
modern psychology, means a will which 
has established its own supremacy over 
its subconscious mind, and can make its 
suggestions in such a way that they are 
readily accepted and carried out. It has 
established its own ideas in the subcon- 
scious mind so that there is no effective 
opposition to them, and it is not afraid 
of outside suggestions against its own. 
A weak will, on the other hand, is one 
which lacks the authority over the sub- 
conscious mind necessary to efficiency. 
The subconscious mind may be stored with 
habits of thought or feeling of which the 
will disapproves, but not strong enough to 

49 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

expel these undesirable thoughts and to 
suggest new and better ones. In such 
a case the will is weak and unstable 
because the house is divided against 
itself. 

When it is said that a strong will is 
one which exercises full and efficient 
control over the subconsciousness, it 
must be understood that strong here 
means only externally or naturally strong. 
For an evil will could establish evil 
habits in the subconsciousness so com- 
pletely as to produce a harmony of action 
which would be entirely stable, consist- 
ent, and efficient for evil ends. 

When, however, we speak of the train- 
ing of the will we mean training of a 
spiritual kind, the training that builds 
up character. 

If weakness of the will is the result of 
50 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

the opposition of evil habits in the inner 
places of the mind, the training of the 
will must be such as to enable it to clear 
out those evil habits and so receive from 
the living Spirit opposite good habits to 
take their place. Thus, for every evil 
habit in the subconscious mind which is 
removed, there will be a good habit of 
vigorous effort established, and thus the 
subconsciousness may be won over en- 
tirely to the good will of the conscious 
mind, and the whole man become homo- 
geneous and strong. 

It is necessary, at this point, to draw a 
clear distinction between a genuinely 
strong will and one which only has the 
appearance of strength; and we shall 
find that this distinction corresponds to 
that between spiritual and natural good. 
This is all the more necessary because 

51 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

the training which would produce a 
strong natural will is very different from 
that which would produce a strong spir- 
itual will; and, indeed, a strong natural 
will must be weakened before the spiritual 
will can begin to grow in strength at all. 
The natural will is, of course, that which 
derives its strength from love of self and 
of the world, and the spiritual will is that 
which derives its strength from the love 
of overcoming self. 

The meaning of the love of self is plain 
enough to us all because our own selfish- 
ness is with us every day; and, even when 
we do not recognize our own, there is 
plenty of selfishness in those around us 
to teach us what it means to live from the 
love of self. In the same way, it is com- 
paratively easy to understand what the 
love of the world is; for we do not need 

52 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

to have advanced far in self-knowledge to 
realize how uninteresting most of our 
work would be, if we were to receive no 
credit for it, no recognition from any 
human source whatever. But when it 
comes to understanding the meaning of 
a life from actual love to God and to 
the neighbor, our practical sources of 
instruction from direct example are very 
few. If we eliminate the theological, 
sentimental, or emotional conceptions, 
none of which in themselves have any 
spiritual life in them whatever, we shall 
find that there is only just one way of 
finding out the meaning of love to God, 
and that is the practical shunning of 
selfishness as sin against him; for the 
willingness to give up what is precious 
to one's self for his sake is the only 
practical test of love to God. Assuming 

53 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

then that we are all born into the love of 
self and of the world, and that it is our 
Father's will that we should be born again 
into the opposite love of himself and of 
the neighbor, it becomes clear that the 
spiritual will is that which is best adapted 
to cooperate with God's will in effecting 
this change. 

There are three stages to be regarded 
in the training of the will, which, al- 
though they may be described in suc- 
cessive order, must be practised all to- 
gether, or as the occasion demands, for 
they are all three different forms of the 
same activity. The first is the acquire- 
ment of self-knowledge, both in the sub- 
conscious and the conscious mind. This 
means that we must become conscious of 
the evils in our subconscious mind, as 
well as those which we already recognize. 

54 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

The second is the use of the interior will 
in prayer and repentance. And the third 
is the carrying out of the results in active 
life. Thus new habits are formed in the 
subconsciousness, and a new individu- 
ality from the living Spirit begins to 
exist. 

Regarded from the natural point of 
view, strength of will is tested by its 
capacity for carrying out the objects of 
its ambition, for overcoming obstacles, 
and for maintaining a certain stability 
and poise which gives the appearance of 
strength; but, when regarded from the 
spiritual point of view, we shall find that 
this pleasing appearance will in many 
cases have to be sacrificed in estimating 
strength of will. If the first element of 
spiritual strength is true self-knowledge, 
and the capacity for acting upon that self- 

55 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

knowledge, a certain fluctuation of the 
consciousness must sometimes be neces- 
sary to the exercise of strength of will, 
and this fluctuation may often, in the 
course of spiritual growth, exceed the 
limits of stability and poise. The volun- 
tary renunciation of the natural will 
must, in the beginning, be more or less 
spasmodic and irregular, until the in- 
terior will has had its full opportunity 
for growth, and the development of 
steady, strong, and permanent habits. 
We must distinguish between the in- 
stability of sincere growth and that of 
merely careless selfishness. The former 
is of small consequence when the founda- 
tions of the will are being deepened, even 
by sufferings or temptations which may 
shake it to its very depth. 

The cause of the stability or instability 
56 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

is what makes it really good or bad. The 
fluctuations that accompany the strain 
of temptation, and the growing pains 
which are inseparable from a funda- 
mental change of affection and habit, 
although they may give the appearance 
of weakness to those who judge from 
effects alone, have nothing alarming 
about them when viewed in the light of 
permanent causes. 

In learning to know ourselves more 
and more ,truly we need not be afraid of 
apparent and obvious instability. Pro- 
vided that the dominant effort is sincere 
there is much to be learned from being 
willing to make mistakes, to try experi- 
ments, and even to flounder about in 
apparently unproductive experiences. If 
the effort running through all this con- 
fusion be sincere and single-minded, it 

57 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

will ultimately lead to a stability all the 
more solid because of its actual contact 
with different phases of life. What is 
far more dangerous, and far weaker than 
external instability of will, is the rigidity 
and the lack of elasticity which come 
from the habit of self-righteousness or 
of merely traditional religion. In the 
instability of growth there is a state 
of comparative ventilation in which evil 
things come to the surface and are seen 
for what they are; but in the case of a 
rigid and inelastic will, which is always 
pre-occupied with external appearances 
and conceals its evil impulses even from 
itself, it is impossible that true self- 
knowledge should be gained. Our Lord 
consorted with publicans and sinners, 
and not with the scribes and Pharisees, 
because he felt the rigid self-righteous- 

58 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

ness of the Pharisees as a barrier which 
he, even with all the resources at his 
command, could not hope to penetrate; 
this is the great danger of merely heredi- 
tary " goodness; " and, from a spiritual 
point of view, it results in the weakest 
kind of a will, — so weak that it is not 
susceptible of training until its self-com- 
placency has been removed. 

Until we have actually realized our 
selfish tendencies — not as a matter of 
emotion, or sentiment, or theological 
belief, but as a matter of fact which we 
fully accept and upon which we are 
willing logically to act — we cannot begin 
to train our wills or really to help one 
another in our internal growth. It is 
therefore very important that we should, 
without the least contempt or conde- 
scension, lead a sufferer to understand 

59 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

his own weakness and to recognize its 
causes. It may be humiliating for him 
to do this, but the endurance of the hu- 
miliation, for the sake of the end in view, 
is in itself strengthening; and he can be 
led gradually to act against his own weak- 
ness and build up new habits of strength 
in his subconsciousness. In the case of a 
drunkard, for instance, it is the greedy 
appetite or selfishness in the mind that 
produces the craving in the body; and he 
can work from within outward, if he is led 
to recognize and repent of the selfishness 
as sin against his God. The outward 
and visible disease is in the nerves of the 
stomach, but behind this is inevitably a 
disease of the spirit. It does not matter 
whether it be an acquired evil or a heredi- 
tary taint, the trouble in the spirit is 
what causes the trouble in the body, and 

60 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

the real evil cannot be thoroughly over- 
come unless the spirit is purged and 
cleansed. There are men who have 
merely checked the outward habit of 
drink and have directed their selfishness 
into some other and similar channel. 
They have become gluttons or have in- 
dulged in other sensual gratifications. 
The will is not truly cured or strength- 
ened until the cause of the weakness in 
the spirit is discovered and removed. 

The first part of the training of the 
will must be that of telling ourselves the 
truth from the point of view of motives 
and causes. This is the distinguishing 
characteristic of all spiritual life; it 
should always be a life in realities rather 
than appearances; and, even if our loyalty 
to the inner truth should lead us into 
conflict with the world, in the long 

61 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

run our actions will prove to be wiser 
than those of the world, because based 
upon truth rather than expediency. How- 
ever we may reason and act from ap- 
parent expediency in the outward affairs 
of life, when we come to the training of 
the will, we find that this is impossible. 
Here we must regard the truth itself and 
nothing else; and we must act from 
the love of right itself and nothing 
else. No religious sentiment, or custom, 
or conventionality, or worldly prudence 
is able to take the place of truth when we 
are required to see ourselves as we really 
are. And so, when a weak, selfish, and 
inefficient man says to himself without 
emotion, false shame, or excuse, but only 
with the single-minded desire to acknowl- 
edge the facts: " Yes, I am weak, selfish, 
and inefficient," or when a wilful, dis- 

62 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

honest, and self-seeking man says to 
himself, in the same spirit: " Yes, I am 
wilful, dishonest, and self-seeking! " he 
has taken the first step in the training of 
his will. But he will have to go over the 
ground often before he can accept and 
digest the truth thus quietly, and with- 
out resistance from the natural man. 
Every time, however, that he makes his 
acknowledgment in his Father's sight, 
looking to him for all the new life and 
strength which is waiting for him, he 
is adding to the purity and force of his 
interior strength of will. After a while 
he begins to realize that the weak man 
in himself is not the only one, for there 
is another mind in himself which is look- 
ing down upon all this weakness. 

Once the spiritual mind is opened by 
the willing acknowledgment of evil, the 

63 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

evils of the subconscious mind are per- 
mitted to come up into the consciousness 
to be shunned as sins. It is undoubtedly 
true that, when we have broken through 
the covering of our conceit sufficiently to 
begin to change our dominant affection, 
we recognize more and more evil in our- 
selves of which we were ignorant before. 
But when our evils are recognized in 
the region of causes and motives, then it 
becomes necessary that the will should 
be aroused and developed in these same 
regions; that is to say, we must use a 
more interior will than we need to use in 
dealing with outward words or acts alone. 
As we grow in the practice and habit of 
recognizing our evil motives more nearly 
at their source and origin, the correspond- 
ing habit of using our wills in repent- 
ance by shunning our evils as sins must 

64 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

be formed more interiorly also. Thus is 
formed the habit of active, positive, con- 
stant, interior prayer, and this is what 
we have called the second step in the 
training of the will; first, we must learn 
to know ourselves and to recognize the 
poison of evil as soon as it enters the 
mind; and, secondly, to apply the anti- 
dote of prayer and repentance in the 
region of motives and causes, wherever 
we may be, so that the use of our wills in 
this interior work may gradually become 
established in the subconsciousness. 

A weak will is one which, while ignor- 
ing causes, attempts to work in effects 
alone. The ordinary drunkard, for in- 
stance, only thinks of whiskey when 
his temptation is upon him. If he can 
resist his temptation, all well and good; 
but if he cannot, then he must succumb. 

65 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

It is only after he has advanced some- 
what in self-knowledge that he realizes 
the more general selfishness which lies 
behind his particular appetite- When 
he does this, and uses his will to over- 
come temptations to selfishness in other 
lines, the use of his will becomes more 
interior and strong, because he is learn- 
ing to apply it in the more interior region 
of causes, and less in the merely external 
region of effects; thus, when it comes to 
refusing the whiskey, he finds he can 
more easily do it because of the strength 
that has grown from his refusing to 
yield to other and deeper selfish temp- 
tations. 

One thing which is helpful in this kind 
of work is the perception of what we may 
call spiritual counterparts. We all know 
the old saying that a bully is a coward, 

66 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

and the same principle underlying this 
familiar statement will* be found to exist 
in all forms of evil. The bully has the 
appearance of courage; but, under a 
certain change of circumstances, this 
appearance of courage gives way to the 
appearance of fear. Thus we may no- 
tice also that if we are addicted to con- 
tempt or arrogance, there is lurking in- 
side of us a tendency to mean servility. 
A change of circumstances will often 
reveal the fact that the underlying trait 
of character is the same, and that what 
manifests itself as arrogance in pros- 
perity is apt to reveal itself as servility 
when prosperity has disappeared. Self- 
ish exhilaration and despondency, lust 
and cruelty, are counterparts of this 
kind, and many others may be discov- 
ered in the course of growing self-knowl- 

67 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

edge. The realization of this principle 
is a great help in giving us an intelligent 
appreciation of our natural tendencies, 
and in showing us how we can work in- 
directly to overcome any evil affection, 
even when we are not conscious of direct 
temptation, by learning to control its 
counterpart. When, for instance, we 
control our impulse to be too friendly 
with those from whom we may expect 
worldly advantage, for the reason that 
our motive is selfish and sinful, we are 
at the same time working against the 
tendency which makes us contemptuous 
or condescending to the ordinary, famil- 
iar persons from whom we may feel that 
we have nothing, to gain. 

A persistent effort to use the will with 
an intelligent grasp of this principle is 
in itself strengthening, because it gives 

68 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

us practice in working more in causes 
and less in effects. The process of free- 
ing the will from the love of self is nec- 
essarily painful, because this love is the 
life of natural men, and we cannot have 
life taken from us, even partially, with- 
out suffering. Often the suffering of the 
dying selfish will lasts a long time before 
the joy of the new life from the unselfish 
will becomes apparent at all. Under 
these circumstances we often long for 
some excitement which may give us re- 
lief, but the temporary relief only results 
in a more painful reaction. The fact is 
that the pain and the relief both have 
their roots in self, and that the patient 
enduring of the pain strengthens the 
unselfish will and thus weakens the 
cause of the pain at its root. The turn- 
ing toward relief, on the other hand, is 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

a weakening of the unselfish will and so 
strengthens the real cause of the pain. 
The pain and the relief are counterparts, 
and spring from the same cause. By 
recognizing this fact we may save our- 
selves much useless effort in trying to 
escape from the inevitable, instead of 
quietly settling down to carrying the 
cross without which we cannot be born 
again as free children of our divine 
Father. 

By our Lord's help, every will is ade- 
quate to bear its own cross, if only it be 
faced willingly. But we are confused by 
our lack of self-knowledge, which makes 
us attribute to other persons and to out- 
side circumstances unfortunate conditions 
which are due to our own weakness. 
We cannot bear our burden with strong 
and loving wills so long as our endurance 

70 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

is tainted with injustice to others, with 
prejudice, and a consequent lack of pro- 
portion in our judgments. All this dis- 
appears when we have really found our- 
selves out and admitted fully our own 
faults and evil tendencies. The prob- 
lem then becomes comparatively simple; 
the will can focus upon its own burden 
of sin, and is relieved of all the confusion, 
weakness, and perplexity, which arises 
from a well-meaning but mistaken effort 
to conscientiously apportion blame where 
it may not belong, and to try to be just 
to others without being just to itself. 
By the honesty of true self-knowledge 
the problem of the will is simplified, and 
thus enabled to concentrate its power 
without waste. When we have found 
out our real burdens, we can let our im- 
aginary burdens go; and most of the 

71 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

selfish misery and weakness in the world 
is due to the imaginary burdens which 
no honest will can carry for the very 
reason that they are false. So long as 
I am blaming other persons or my exter- 
nal circumstances for the consequences 
of my own inherent weakness of char- 
acter, I cannot bring my will to bear 
honestly upon the actual situation, for 
I am deceiving myself with a fundamen- 
tal falsehood; but, as soon as I have 
accepted the truth about myself, my 
will is released and set free for honest 
and concentrated effort; and, at the 
same time, my judgment becomes sound 
in estimating with charity the faults of 
others. 

The third step in the training of the 
will is through our work in outward act. 
We are told that truth does not even be- 

72 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

gin to exist, in a spiritual sense, until it 
has been carried out in act, and, according 
to this principle, none of the work which 
we do in causes, by recognizing our evil 
motives at their root and by the persist- 
ent practice of prayer and repentance, 
can possibly be effective or permanent 
until we apply it to our circumstances 
and human relations. The drunkard 
who wishes to overcome his habit can- 
not possibly help himself by indulging 
in kindly and ineffective wishes for the 
good of others; but, if he tries to find 
out the genuine needs of other people, 
and supplies them in practical ways by 
active service, he is undermining the 
foundation of his morbid appetite. It 
is impossible to say that work in effects 
is more important than work in causes, 
or that work in causes is more important 

73 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

than work in effects; neither is sufficient 
without the other; but, when the will 
has been trained to work in causes in 
the light of real self-knowledge, work 
in effects becomes comparatively easy. 
To go back for a moment to the phrase- 
ology of the psychologist, the new, good 
habit of the will cannot become established 
in the subconscious mind, excepting by 
repeated outward acts. 

When we realize that what makes 
the subconscious mind properly subor- 
dinate to the will, and thus renders the 
will strong and efficient in its supremacy 
over the whole man, is the constant 
carrying out of the good thoughts of the 
mind into external act, we are at once 
reminded of the closing passage of our 
Lord's Sermon on the Mount (St. Luke 
vi., 47-49): — 

74 



THE TRAINING OF THE WILL 

" Whosoever cometh to me and hear- 
eth my sayings and doeth them, I will 
show you to whom he is like; he is like 
a man which built an house and digged 
deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: 
and when the flood arose, the stream 
beat vehemently upon that house and 
could not shake it; for it was founded 
upon a rock. But he that heareth and 
doeth not, is like a man that without a 
foundation built an house upon the 
earth; against which the stream did 
beat vehemently, and immediately it 
fell; and the ruin of that house was 
great." 

The house built upon the earth is the 
result of the weak will which, while lis- 
tening to and talking about the truth, 
is not willing to carry it out; and which 

75 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

often cannot even know the truth about 
itself, because the consciousness is so 
possessed by complacent self-righteous- 
ness. The house which cannot be shaken 
is the result of a will which has grown 
strong in the process of digging deep 
into the motives of the heart, until it 
has reached the bed-bottom rock of true 
self-knowledge. Upon this, as a founda- 
tion, are built up new habits of repent- 
ance and prayer which are worked into 
the very fiber of the soul by being carried 
out into the acts of daily life. We can 
do nothing strongly in effects until it 
has been done in causes, and nothing 
is complete in causes until it has been 
accomplished in effects. We must learn 
to dig deep, and then only will our foun- 
dation be secure and our house stable. 



76 



Chapter IV 

Non-resistance 

" But I say unto you, That ye resist not 
evil." 

IT is most interesting to note reverently 
how our Lord himself in his life on 
earth practised the principle of non- 
resistance which is so characteristic of 
his teaching, — the non-resistance which, 
with positive willingness, yields up every- 
thing that stands in the way of what is 
right and good. 

There is nothing so demoralizing as a 
general habit of yielding weakly to every 
influence that comes along. To try to 
please everybody, to follow the line of 

77 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

least resistance, is the one course which 
in the end does no one any good and 
leads steadily downward. In the spirit- 
ual life manliness and strength hold the 
same relative position that they do in the 
natural life; and no manliness or strength 
can possibly be acquired or retained 
excepting by the exercise of courage 
and the overcoming of obstacles. To 
get a true idea of spiritual non-resist- 
ance, therefore, we must begin by asso- 
ciating it with all the qualities that 
make for strength; and, as a matter of 
fact, it is that gentle yielding up of all 
the merely weak and selfish resistances 
of our minds and bodies, in order to 
make room for the inflow of new and 
unselfish life. 

Power in action is gained by economy 
of force, or the concentration of all our 

78 



NON - RESISTANCE 

strength upon the given work to be 
done at a given time. As spiritual be- 
ings, the whole of our duty can be 
summed up in being unselfishly loving, 
truthful without prejudice, and useful 
to our fellow-men. This is what we 
should learn to concentrate our strength 
upon, and therefore it follows that all 
the affections and desires that pull us 
away from unselfishness and truth should 
be yielded up and dropped entirely. If 
we wish to keep a true balance we should 
never practise non-resistance to evil with- 
out concentrating upon upholding what 
is good; neither should we try to uphold 
what is good without, at the same time, 
remembering never selfishly to resist 
the evil. 

Before we can learn to live in satis- 
factory and unselfish relations to one an- 

79 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

other, we have, each one of us, to come 
into some sort of clear understanding 
with himself. And this two-fold prin- 
ciple of non-resistance and concentra- 
tion must be practised in our individual 
relations to God, if we are to have the 
strength to practise it in our relations 
to each other. I do not mean that we 
must wait until we have mastered it in 
ourselves before we try to apply it in 
our social relations, I mean that we must 
practise it all through. 

A great philosopher has summed up 
our duty as Christians in the precept, 
" Look to the Lord and shun evils as 
sins." Looking to the Lord is concen- 
trating upon keeping His command- 
ments; shunning evils as sins is dropping 
and yielding all the selfish resistances — 
all the resentments, envies, jealousies, 

80 



NON - RESISTANCE 

and fears — which stand in the way of 
our obedience. 

Supposing that we have suffered a 
great loss in business and are disap- 
pointed in hopes we have been cherish- 
ing for years, — how can we, in this 
state of shocked and pained disappoint- 
ment, bring to bear upon our lives the 
helpful power of this principle? Our 
ambition has been disappointed, our 
love of possession has been wounded, 
and our vanity has been mortified; but 
all these things — ambition, love of pos- 
session, and vanity — are only different 
aspects of our lower nature, of the self- 
hood which we have been put here to 
overcome and outgrow, in order that 
we may develop into spiritual beings 
living from love of right and principle 
and not from self, from love to the neigh- 

81 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

bor and not from love of worldly reward. 
Clearly we must look up to the divine, 
over-ruling Spirit which has permitted 
this misfortune, we must concentrate 
upon the unselfish obedience that he re- 
quires of us, and we must be positively 
willing that our material ambition should 
be disappointed, that our love of posses- 
sion should be wounded, and that our 
vanity should be mortified. In other 
words, we must concentrate upon obedi- 
ence to what is better and wiser than 
ourselves, and yield up all resistance to 
suffering. When suffering is vigorously 
and willingly accepted without resist- 
ance, it opens the gates for truer life 
and power for use; and, after such a 
misfortune as the one we have been im- 
agining, if it were received in this strong 
spirit of loving and gentle non-resistance, 

82 



NON - RESISTANCE 

a man would go forward with a new and 
deeper strength, and so turn his tempo- 
rary failure into lasting success- 
It is not right or wise for us to impose 
our personal opinions upon each other; 
and, when we selfishly try to do this, 
it results in one of two things: either 
an altercation or argument which tends 
to breed excitement and increased an- 
tagonism; or else the weak submission 
of one party to the will of the other, not 
for the sake of love or truth but from a 
selfish desire for external peace and quiet. 
Nothing has been gained by such a sub- 
mission. The freedom of one individual 
has been injured, and the personal pride 
of the other has been increased; and a 
very little thing may cause the discord 
to break out afresh under some other 
form. 

83 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

Now, if we call in the principle of non- 
resistance to help us in such a situation, 
we shall find in it the key to our freedom, 
to our dignity as spiritual beings, and to 
our lasting peace. Supposing that, at the 
beginning of what promises to be a bitter 
disagreement, one of the parties were to 
say firmly and quietly: "I am willing 
that you should think that I am wrong, 
entirely willing; I recognize your right to 
your own opinions; I care as much for 
your freedom as I do for my own; only I 
must be true to the same principle with 
regard to myself. I have an equal right 
to my convictions, and it is as much my 
duty to preserve my own freedom as it is 
to respect yours. " The most arrogant 
bully is usually at a loss when he is con- 
fronted with this attitude of combined 
kindness and firmness in obedience to a 

84 



NON - RESISTANCE 

universal principle. Lift the discussion up 
out of the region of personal opinions to 
the plane of respect for human freedom, 
and it must either collapse altogether 
or gain vastly in dignity and usefulness. 
It is a very simple matter: "I am will- 
ing to be thought wrong; I give up all 
desire for personal sympathy, in so far as 
this desire is selfish; I do not resist the 
pain of criticism, but am willing to ac- 
cept it entirely; thus all my strength is set 
free to concentrate upon a tolerant respect 
for the right of private judgment, and 
my own judgment is greatly clarified." 

Now if we imagine a family or small 
community of people agreeing together 
in the love of this principle, we find that 
it would lead to an uncommon degree of 
openness and frankness. All would feel 
that there was no fear of being bullied, 

85 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

no fear of the tyranny by which the 
opinion of one person is imposed upon 
another; consequently all would feel free 
to express their opinions. At the same 
time all would unite in a common con- 
centration upon loving obedience to prin- 
ciple, and all the opinions expressed 
would be considered in the light of this 
fundamental law. As a result, the triv- 
ial, prejudiced, and selfish opinions ex- 
pressed would very soon be found out 
and voluntarily abandoned, not in obedi- 
ence to the will of the majority but from 
the perception of truth which comes 
from the light of sympathetic criticism 
all around. Such a community would 
be a truly spiritual society, a type of 
the kingdom of heaven; for the strength 
of all the individuals would be combined 
in maintaining the individual freedom 



NON - RESISTANCE 

of all, in upholding the principle of obe- 
dience to law and in giving up all merely 
personal or selfish resistance to the mean§ 
of purification — however painful — 
which the divine providence would per- 
mit. 

It is not only, however, in our rela- 
tions with persons that this divine teach- 
ing calls upon us not to resist evil. What 
we call our circumstances — circum- 
stances that appear to be limiting, op- 
pressive, and unnecessary — frequently 
call upon us for all the strength and 
patience which wise non-resistance af- 
fords. We may have, for example, a 
physical infirmity, which carries with 
it a constant sense of fatigue, and thus 
appears to bar us out from the accom- 
plishment of the particular work we 
have at heart. This infirmity in itself 

87 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

is an evil, for it is a departure from the 
perfect order in which our Father in- 
tends his children to live; and this evil 
we must not resist. If we do resist it, 
the infirmity ceases to be only one of 
the body, but spreads, through our resist- 
ance, to the soul. We are at present liv- 
ing in a mixed world in which we have 
blessed opportunities for learning the 
truth and following the right, but in 
which, also, on account of the perversity 
of human nature — on account of the 
presence of self-love and worldliness — 
much evil exists, and, for the sake of 
the freedom of the human will, must be 
permitted. We have evil in ourselves 
for which we are directly responsible, 
and this we must continually shun, 
looking to our Father for the opposite 
good; but there is also evil — sometimes 

88 



NON - RESISTANCE 

in ourselves and sometimes in others — 
for which we are not responsible. This 
inevitable evil, whether it take the form 
of physical ill, of cramping circumstances, 
or of unfriendliness from others, must 
never be resisted; for, by resistance, the 
evil grows and spreads. When we pray, 
" Thy will be done/ 5 we are asking for 
a cheerful, wholesome willingness to ac- 
cept the inevitable conditions and cir- 
cumstances of our lives. Without this 
willingness, we become the slaves of 
those things which should properly be 
our servants. With this willingness we 
find our freedom as loving and obedient 
children of the Father. As we learn to 
accept in a generous spirit all the things 
which we would gladly have otherwise, 
if it were possible; we gain, by that very 
submission, a great power to overcome 

89 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

all the evils for which we are properly 
responsible, and also to receive in large 
measure the vitality and virility which 
always come to those who conquer them- 
selves from obedience to God. 

We are taught that the stream of the 
Father's over-ruling love is continually 
working to protect his children. But, 
in order to receive the full benefit of 
that protection our own free wills must 
be working in accord with his will, 
must be cooperating with the Spirit 
itself. Thus it comes about that, if my 
brother attacks me with contempt or 
ill-will, and I am irritated into answer- 
ing him with the same feeling, I lose 
the full protection of the Father's vital 
love, because the Spirit cannot mix with 
evil. If, on the other hand, I am not 
resentful because he is angry or con- 

90 



NON - RESISTANCE 

temptuous, but meet him with patient 
helpfulness, I am thereby keeping my- 
self within the stream of the divine 
loving-kindness, and thus come within 
the sphere of its full protection; I also 
retain the power of helping my brother 
as soon as he becomes willing to receive 
my help. 

It has been said: "Internal men, as 
are the angels of heaven, do not will 
the recompense of evil for evil, but from 
heavenly charity forgive, for they know 
that the Lord protects all who are in 
good against the evil, and that He pro- 
tects according to the good appertaining 
to them, and that He would not protect, 
if, by reason of the evil done to them- 
selves, they should be inflamed with 
enmity, hatred, and revenge, for those 
evils avert protection." 

91 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

The principle of non-resistance has 
been misinterpreted by the world so as 
to appear to mean a cowardly accept- 
ance of evil in others which would make 
us the servants of evil instead of the 
free children of God. It is necessary 
to distinguish between the non-resist- 
ance which is good and requires all the 
courage and manhood of which we are 
capable, and the non-resistance which 
is merely a weak submission to our own 
cowardice and to the wickedness of 
others. True and good non-resistance 
can only be acquired by the conquest 
of our own evil passions; and, whenever 
we have once overcome these in our- 
selves, we are not likely to be afraid of 
the same evil passions in others. False 
and evil non-resistance implies first a 
subjection to our own evil passions, and 

92 



NON - RESISTANCE 

then a servile submission to the same 
evil things in others. It is, of course, 
only the good non-resistance that is 
spoken of in this passage; the non-resist- 
ance which steadfastly upholds the truth 
and never compromises with falsehood, 
which upholds the truth without harsh- 
ness and only in a helpful spirit; the 
non-resistance which gives up all things 
that are only personally, or selfishly 
pleasant or advantageous, for the sake 
of those things which are universally 
valuable. 

Without a strong concentration upon 
the truth of principles, non-resistance 
would be merely flabby and selfish weak- 
ness; and, if we did not yield up our 
merely personal and selfish affections 
and desires, our upholding of principle 
would be harsh and destructive. We 

93 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

must never yield for the sake of self, 
but always yield up what is wrong for 
the sake of lovingly and patiently up- 
holding and doing what is right. 

" Then cometh Jesus with them unto 
a place called Gethsemane, and saith 
unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I 
go and pray yonder. And he took with 
him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, 
and began to be sorrowful and very 
heavy. Then saith he unto them, My 
soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto 
death: tarry ye here and watch with 
me. And he went a little farther, and 
fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O 
my Father, if it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me: nevertheless, not as I 
will, but as Thou wilt." 

When our Lord made this prayer, in 
his agony, he was not yet glorified. The 



NON - RESISTANCE 

natural in him was suffering intensely 
from apprehension of the terrible crisis 
he was about to go through. The indig- 
nities, hardships, and physical exhaus- 
tion and torture to which he was about 
to submit were only outward and visible 
correspondences of far keener suffering 
resulting from the attacks of the com- 
bined forces of hell upon the inmost 
affections of his soul. Our imaginations 
cannot follow the course of these inward 
sufferings, for no experiences of our own 
could give an adequate idea of the in- 
tense torment he underwent, for the 
very reason that within his mortal frame 
the spirit of absolute holiness was pres- 
ent. The rage of hell, with all the cruel 
hatred for the good, which is character- 
istic of evil, was concentrated upon the 
divine unselfish love that was the heart 

95 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

and spirit of this Man. But, if we con- 
sider only the external events that took 
place between the time of this prayer 
in the garden and the time when his 
mortal body was found to be dead upon 
the cross, we can easily see that unless 
our Lord had been willing to take the 
cup, he could not possibly have main- 
tained the power and freedom of his 
soul throughout the course of the indig- 
nities and brutalities to which he was 
subjected. If he had yielded to the fear 
and resistance in his natural man, he 
could not have met the company of 
armed men Judas was leading, with the 
divinely quiet words: 

" Whom seek ye? They answered 
him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith 
unto them, I am he." Words which he 
spoke with so much dignity and freedom 

96 



NON - RESISTANCE 

and power, that, " as soon as he had said 
unto them, I am he, they went backward, 
and fell on the ground. Then asked he 
them again, Whom seek ye? And they 
said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said, 

" I have told you that I am he. If there- 
fore ye seek me, let these go their way." 

And when Peter had cut off the right 
ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus 
said, " Put up thy sword into the sheath: 
the cup which my Father has given me, 
shall I not drink it? " 

If he had refused to drink the cup, 
if he had pitied himself, if he had not 
wholly given up his natural man in obedi- 
ence to the Father's will, if he had re- 
sisted the evil which was threatening 
to overwhelm him, he could not have 
answered the high priest with noble 
independence, as he said, 

97 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

" I spake openly to the world; I ever 
taught in the synagogue, and in the 
temple, whither the Jews always resort; 
and in secret have I said nothing. Why 
askest thou me? Ask them which heard 
me, what I have said unto them: behold, 
they know what I have said/' 

And then, when he had been struck 
by one of the officers, incensed by his 
freedom from all servile fear, Jesus again 
said, " If I have spoken evil, bear wit- 
ness of the evil: but if well, why smitest 
thou me? " 

His mind was open to conviction. He 
would have been willing to acknowledge 
a mistake if he had made one, and all 
his faculties were alert through the power 
of the great love which was within his 
heart. 

And then, when the high priest had 
98 



NON - RESISTANCE 

had enough of him, and he came before 
Pilate, Pilate asked him, 

" Art thou the King of the Jews? " 
Jesus answered him, " Sayest thou this 
thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee 
of me? ' Pilate answered him, " Am 
I a Jew? Thine own nation and the 
chief priest have delivered thee unto 
me: what hast thou done? " 

" Jesus answered, My kingdom is not 
of this world: if my kingdom were of 
this world, then would my servants 
fight, that I should not be delivered to 
the Jews: but now is my kingdom not 
from hence. Pilate therefore said unto 
him, Art thou a king then? Jesus an- 
swered, Thou sayest that I am a king. 
To this end was I born, and for this 
cause came I into the world, that I 
should bear witness unto the truth. 

99 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

Every one that is of the truth heareth 
my voice." 

Here is the greatest and most noble 
example of non-resistance in the history 
of man. Here was absolute concentra- 
tion upon upholding the truth of his 
divine kingship, in the face of a murder- 
ous rabble on the one hand, and of the 
cold and worldly indifference of Pilate on 
the other. There is not a trace of resent- 
ment or antagonism to the indignities and 
cruelties to which he was subjected: there 
is not a suspicion of resistance to evil. 
He was willing that they should smite 
him, spit upon him, pervert his message 
of truth, and torture his body with a cruel 
death; and, because of this entire willing- 
ness to suffer what could only affect his 
human self -hood, he was able to concen- 
trate all the divine power of his soul on 

100 



NON - RESISTANCE 

upholding the heavenly truth which is 
the salvation of the whole human race. 

This is how our Lord practised non- 
resistance in the supreme moments of 
his life on earth, and thus established 
his spiritual kingdom for us to live in. 
He had preached the principle in the 
Sermon on the Mount, and here, when 
put to the most difficult test, he was 
true to his own word. 

Would that we might follow in his 
footsteps, meeting the unfriendliness 
and hatred of enemies by shunning all 
unfriendliness or hatred in ourselves; 
meeting the hardness of our circum- 
stances with loving and patient willing- 
ness; always remembering to stand by 
the truth at all costs, and never com- 
promising with falsehood for the sake 
of a quiet life. 

101 



Chapter V 
Balance 

MANLINESS must ultimately 
depend upon passion, — that 
is, the will to put through 
whatever is to be done at whatever ex- 
pense of suffering. 

But in states of purification, for which 
nervous suffering offers so clear an oppor- 
tunity, it is frequently the case that there 
are apparently different and even oppos- 
ing wills at work in the same person at 
the same time. This, of course, gives 
the outward effect of absence of will, for 
the balance of consciousness is tempora- 

102 



BALANCE 

rily upset. Hence the vacillations of 
judgment and indecision caused in nerv- 
ous states. The presence of a true and 
understanding friend is invaluable in 
such conditions; for, with a little intelli- 
gent sympathy and firmness, the mind 
can be led to concentrate upon a sensi- 
ble course of action which fortifies the 
stronger and sounder elements of the 
will. In every case this course will be 
the most quiet and the most unselfish 
of the various lines of action or inac- 
tion to which the vacillating mind is 
prompted. 

Gradually, by repeated efforts along 
the line of clear, unselfish principle, the 
will may become strengthened, much 
as a muscle may be strengthened by 
repeated exercise; and ultimately it learns 
to prefer the wise, though disagreeable 

103 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

or painful, course to the weak and easy 
one. 

In one of his sermons, Phillips Brooks 
once said: "Let everything that is in 
your mind come out, and then you can 
choose what is good and throw away 
what is bad," The worst possible course 
is to cover up, for this prevents the pos- 
sibility of self-knowledge and of a gen- 
uine choice. 

This unstable or fluid state of the will, 
therefore, has its great uses in the puri- 
fication of the heart and the formation 
of character; but the danger is that it 
may disappear and that a superficial con- 
centration and stability may be restored 
before the will has become purified and 
found out what it really loves best, as 
distinguished from the temporary dis- 
tractions and aberrations of self-love. 

104 



BALANCE 

When nerves have recovered to a 
certain extent, there are apt to come 
times of elation, in which old habits of 
selfishness reassert themselves. But these 
contain within themselves the seed of 
their own destruction, and the pendulum 
usually swings back in time to the former 
states of weakness and vacillation, when 
the practice of sober judgment along the 
line of unselfish effort must be begun 
again. 

We can imagine, for instance, a person 
breaking down as a result of the strain 
caused by various unfortunate or humil- 
iating circumstances. A business man 
who is making a good income commits 
several errors of judgment which lead 
to a serious loss of property; and, at the 
same time, discovers that he was delib- 
erately led on by other persons, through 

105 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

appeals to his vanity, and that these 
other persons ultimately benefited by 
the loss. The realization that he had 
been merely used as an instrument in 
the hands of other people, and that 
through his own weakness he had proved 
himself inefficient and unreliable, brings 
about a state of suffering which causes 
sleeplessness and ultimately collapse. 

Now imagine that, during the course 
of his illness and retirement, it turns out 
that some of the investments he had 
considered worthless began unexpect- 
edly to acquire considerable value. This 
fact would have the tendency to modify 
his suffering in so far as it was the result 
of financial loss, and he might easily 
persuade himself — especially under the 
influence of good-natured and injudicious 
friends — that after all, he had not shown 

106 



BALANCE 

such poor judgment as had been at first 
supposed. 

This second consideration then alle- 
viates the pain of mortified ^vanity, and 
our friend gradually regains his spirits, 
begins to sleep better, takes exercise, 
and finds his appetite restored. 

In this case, while it is probable that 
the patient's original stock of pride 
and self-reliance was considerably shaken 
by his illness and its causes, the good 
forces which were at work to disinte- 
grate the evil in him did not get far 
enough to put him consciously on the 
right track. 

His recovery was not due to the fact 
that he had faced the true facts of his 
experience as a wiser man, having borne 
the entire amount of suffering required 
without any spurious relief , but because 

107 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

he had dodged the full significance of the 
facts and allowed himself the consolation 
of mere self-deception. 

As such a recovery would not be 
firmly founded upon corresponding 
growth of character, so it would not be 
likely to be permanent, — unless the 
dodging and self-deceiving process were 
successfully carried on indefinitely. 

Supposing, however, such a person 
to be sincere and truth-loving at bot- 
tom; and supposing him to break down 
again after a moderate interval of time, 
the fact of his failure — after the pre- 
vious illness — to make use of his experi- 
ence in the best way would tend to light 
up his consciousness more thoroughly as 
to his own character. 

It would be rather a trying thing to 
contemplate the growth of a human 

108 



BALANCE 

soul through a long series of such trials, 
and it is impossible for any one to know 
surely of another how deep the founda- 
tions of his character were intended to 
be laid; but we know that in proportion 
to the depth of self-knowledge acquired 
through suffering will be the ultimate 
stability of the cure. 

In the fluid state of the will which has 
been briefly described, there is a kind 
of limpness which gives the effect of 
inefficiency and weakness; but, if this 
condition is taken advantage of to un- 
ravel the true from the false in our own 
lives, the time will come when the right 
course seems to open up before us with- 
out insuperable obstacles. We then find 
that we can act from principle without 
the paralyzing doubts which have their 
origin in some form of self-love, and our 

109 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

very love for what is good and opposed 
to the weaknesses we have cast off will 
make us assert the truth by our actions 
with firmness and decision. From hav- 
ing seemed the mere victims of suffering 
in the past we shall have learned to un- 
derstand its value with intelligent grati- 
tude, and be prepared to suffer still 
more, if necessary, for the sake of the 
truth which shall have become our en- 
during possession. 

If it had not been for the softening 
and temporary weakening of the will, 
our hearts could not have been cleansed; 
and, if it were not for the new love and 
energy which such cleansing brings in 
its train, we could not carry into effect 
the lessons we have been privileged to 
learn. For, when the will has acquired 
a long habit of selfish activity, it needs 

110 



BALANCE 

the melting effect of the refiner's fire 
before it can adapt itself to purer and 
more delicate activity. 

It is always harder to do what is dis- 
agreeable than what is pleasant, — to 
accomplish something which causes pain 
to one's self than something which is an 
immediate cause of comfort or happi- 
ness; and the fact must be faced, in 
states of purification, that for a long 
time the work to be done must be un- 
pleasant and often painful. 

Pleasure and pain are the result of 
the satisfaction or disappointment of 
our desires — be they physical or moral 
— and, until our desires, ambitions, and 
affections have been purified of self- 
love, the satisfaction of unselfishness 
will seem tame and inadequate, while 
the absence of selfish gratification, the 

111 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

absence of sympathy in moral weak- 
ness, and the absence of all encourage- 
ment of pride must often have the 
effect of acute depression and humilia- 
tion. 

Even after the choice of an unselfish 
life has been seriously and earnestly 
made, as alone capable of satisfying our 
deepest aspirations, rebellious impulses 
and habits will continually assert them- 
selves to inflict pain and discouragement, 
and the higher and truer aspirations will 
sometimes disappear from the conscious- 
ness for a time, forgotten under the 
pressure of discouragement. 

These processes are necessarily pain- 
ful, but the strength to pick one's self 
up quickly after a fall, to maintain a 
humble and alert lookout in states of 
comparative ease, and the practice of 

112 



BALANCE 

detailed self-denial, gradually lead to an 
entirely new kind of satisfaction which 
only experience itself can teach. 

u Then shall mine head be lifted up 
above mine enemies round about me, 
and I will offer in his tabernacle sacri- 
fices of joy." 

When this new satisfaction has been 
once felt, and carefully separated from 
any possible gratification of moral con- 
ceit or complacency, the burden of the 
journey is immensely lightened. But of 
course there is no fixed turning-point 
or definite mark beyond which none of 
the temptations to weakness will never 
assert themselves. The path of progress 
— when it is genuine — is too winding 
and difficult for that, and the gain is 
more from the fact that the strength 
to overcome obstacles grows alive and 

113 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

confident than that the obstacles them- 
selves disappear. 

If we could imagine the possibility of 
a perfectly good man, it is inconceivable 
that he should have nervous illness with- 
out an organic cause; and if, in the same 
way, we could imagine a consistently 
evil person without a redeeming trait, 
it would be just as impossible for him to 
suffer in this way. What seem to be 
the causes of this disease are worries 
and anxieties which arouse in the con- 
sciousness the clashing of inconsistent 
elements of heart and mind. When 
this contest has once begun, it will, in 
most cases, have to go on until the great 
question is settled, — whether or not 
we are willing to give up everything else 
for that one thing which is called by so 
many different names, such as ;i the 

114 



BALANCE 

grain of mustard seed " or " the pearl 
of great price.' ' 

Of course the common impression 
among nervous sufferers is that they are 
the victims of great misfortune; but in 
many cases it would seem to depend 
entirely upon them to turn these condi- 
tions into valuable discipline. It surely 
does not take very deep insight to realize 
that mere worldly and physical enjoy- 
ments must soon come to an end, and 
that the only permanent and lasting 
satisfactions rest upon the growth of 
something within ourselves which is such 
that it can expand and develop, through 
ever-increasing sympathy and apprecia- 
tion, with that which is outside and be- 
yond ourselves. The only lasting growth 
is in accordance with spiritual law, and 
the experience of many persons in such 

115 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

conditions as. these strikingly confirms 
the truth of the teaching of the gospel. 
It also reveals with vivid clearness the 
fact so long forgotten by conventional 
Christians that there is no compromise 
possible between " the world " and the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 



116 



Chapter VI 
The Power of Habit 

ALL yielding to temptation is re- 
sistance to the will of God, — 
things which 'he wishes us to do 
that we do not wish to do, and duties 
which we do not like and therefore 
neglect. These things we make our 
" adversaries " because we place our- 
selves in a position of resistance to 
them. Whenever we act from thoughtless 
self-love or worldliness we are making 
God, himself, our adversary, because, 
although he is constantly trying to draw 
us nearer to himself, — we are all the time 
using our own wills in opposition to him. 

117 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

He is not really an adversary but our 
nearest and dearest friend, but the self 
in us does not love him or like his ways; 
and, so long as we are living from the 
love of self, we are continually resisting 
him and so making him our " adver- 
sary/' 

Of course we are for the most part not 
conscious of such habitual resistance to 
God's will, for we are not especially in- 
terested in finding out what his will 
really is, and we cannot truly appre- 
ciate or understand anything in this 
world unless we are interested enough 
to take pains to learn about it. We 
inherit naturally an interest in outside 
things which appeal to our senses and 
contribute to our personal enjoyment or 
discomfort; but our interest in interior, 
spiritual things, among which of course 

118 



THE POWER OF HABIT 

the will of the Father is the most impor- 
tant, only comes to us through individual 
experience and development from the 
discipline of life. 

We call these two states the " natu- 
ral " and the " spiritual " man, and we 
know that they are continually warring 
upon one another; but, according to the 
true order of normal human develop- 
ment, the natural state gradually gives 
way as the spiritual state grows in 
strength by overcoming temptation. The 
natural state has the power of a long 
inheritance behind it which is handed 
down in the flesh and blood and natural 
characteristics of different families and 
nationalities. These inheritances in- 
clude mental and moral characteristics 
which are closely allied to the purely 
physical nature. It is a very important 

119 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

and interesting fact for us to understand 
and realize, no matter how moral and 
respectable our inherited tendencies and 
habits may be, that these have nothing 
whatever to do with our spiritual nature 
excepting in so far as that they may or 
may not provide obstacles for our spirit- 
ual nature to overcome. We may say 
both of good and evil, moral and vicious, 
intelligent and stupid, coarse and deli- 
cate, weak and strong natural tendencies 
that, in themselves, they have nothing 
to do with the life of the spirit and with 
the spiritual responsibilities which con- 
tribute to our interior characters and our 
eternal life. For, no matter how good 
and respectable hereditary character and 
capacity appear to be, they are derived 
from the principle of self-love and self- 
assertion which is at the root of all evil 

120 



THE POWER OF HABIT 

as well as of all natural character. If I 
am honest because it is easier for me to 
be honest than otherwise, and because 
my father and my grandfather were 
honorable men and I am proud of their 
character, my honesty, of course, has 
nothing to do with my conscious obedi- 
ence to God any more than my dishonesty 
would have to do with conscious diso- 
bedience to him, if I were born with a love 
of stealing, and my father and grand- 
father had been thieves, and I had no 
means of finding God. Our spiritual na- 
ture only begins to wake up into life when 
we realize our personal relation and re- 
sponsibility to our divine Father, and, 
as the consciousness of this personal re- 
lation develops, through our faithfulness 
to it, it opens up to us a new life with 
new and living responsibilities, trials, 

121 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

and joys, belonging to a state which shall 
last forever. 

" Agree with thine adversary quickly, 
whiles thou art in the way with him; 
lest at any time the adversary deliver 
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver 
thee to the officer, and thou be cast into 
prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou 
shalt by no means come out thence, till 
thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." 

By " agree with thine adversary 
quickly ?: is meant the giving up and 
dropping resistance to our Father's will 
while the resistance is still young and has 
not yet had time to fasten itself upon us 
in the form of a habit; for we cannot 
possibly remain voluntarily in a state 
of resistance and disobedience to his 
will without its growing upon us so that 
it becomes more and more difficult to 

122 



THE POWER OF HABIT 

drop it. Habits of self-will become very 
firmly imbedded, not only in our minds 
but also in our nerves; so that, when 
finally we desire to be free from them, 
we often find ourselves enclosed between 
prison walls. We know that a great part 
of our minds lies beneath the surface of 
our present consciousness, just as the 
surface of the sea that we watch glittering 
in the sunlight is only a very small part 
of the whole mass of water that forms the 
ocean with its unsounded depths; we 
also know that the character or quality 
of this unconscious mind is the result 
of the consciousness of the past, — 
and not only of our own past but of 
our ancestors before us. We are what our 
yesterdays have made us, and not only 
our own yesterdays but also those of our 
fathers and forebears. We find ourselves 

123 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

in youth with a strong tendency estab- 
lished by our inheritance in the sub- 
conscious mind, and every conscious act 
of our lives in the line of this same sub- 
conscious tendency tends to increase 
and strengthen it. If the tendency be 
good, it becomes more fixedly good as 
time goes on, but if the tendency be evil, 
every evil act of ours adds to the weight 
of the chains that are keeping us in 
bondage; and the only way in which we 
can make our way out is by deliberately 
choosing to take God's way instead of 
our own, or, in other words, by practising 
the principles of the spiritual life. By 
turning to God with a sense of our de- 
pendence upon him, and by praying to 
be shown our faults as they are in his 
sight, in order that we may learn to put 
them away in obedience to his will, we 

124 



THE POWER OF HABIT 

draw near to the infinite power that can 
overcome the most stubborn and tyran- 
nical evil in existence. It was the young 
shepherd lad who slew the overbearing 
and arrogant Goliath, — not by the help 
of sword and spear but by the power of 
the living God; and it is wonderful to 
see the false strength of evil habits dis- 
appearing before the warm glow of his 
saving spirit. 

But, when our inheritance or the course 
of our past lives has been such as to shut 
us up within the prison walls of habit, 
it is also necessary for us to pay the utter- 
most farthing before we can take ad- 
vantage of our Father's love and step 
out into the freedom and sunshine of 
his presence. It is not that he exacts 
from us the payment of a debt in labor 
or suffering, but that we keep ourselves 

125 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

in prison by our own wills; and that, 
having weakened them by resistance in 
the past, we cannot strengthen thein by 
merely wishing to be good but only 
by learning to yield where we have re- 
sisted before and to obey where we have 
rebelled before. This is the payment 
of the uttermost farthing, — that every 
weakness must be turned into strength 
and every self-centered habit of mind 
turned into the opposite habit of gener- 
ous helpfulness. Of course it is impos- 
sible that the workings of the spirit 
within us, when it is drawing us toward 
freedom, should not occasion suffering. 
We must suffer for everything that is 
selfish in us before it can be taken away, 
and it is the willing acceptance of this 
suffering that purifies us and is part of 
the payment of our debt. 

126 



THE POWER OF HABIT 

The willing endurance of pain is the 
test of unselfish love, and there is nothing 
that cleanses the heart and mind so 
thoroughly as the full and generous ac- 
ceptance, in patience and humility and 
cheerfulness, of whatever suffering the 
Father sees fit to permit us to go through. 
In times of ease we are apt to be self- 
satisfied and not to realize our selfish- 
ness and weakness, so long as we can 
cover it up and it does not attract 
the attention of other people, but the 
blessing of suffering is that it forces our 
evils to the front and reveals to ourselves 
our impatience, rebellion, irritability, and 
self-pity- Thus we are enabled to see 
ourselves as we are in the light of truth 
and can turn to God for help with a new 
appreciation of our own need and of his 
great love. 

127 



Chapter VII 
Appearances and Reality 

IT is a fact of human nature which we 
do not sufficiently remember that 
we have both an " inside " and an 
" outside 91 to our minds. The inside 
has its own life which is not neces- 
sarily the same as the outside; and 
the outside of our minds — that which 
we show to the world in our ordinary 
speech and actions — is not necessarily 
the same as the inside. The principal 
difference between them that first at- 
tracts our attention is that our inside 
thoughts are, for the most part, private 

128 



APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

thoughts and are free from the restraints 
which are imposed upon us by our caring 
what other people think. So long as other 
people do not know what we think, we 
are, of course, relieved from all anxiety 
or care for their good opinion, and our 
thoughts, as far as people are concerned, 
are free as air. In the outside of our 
minds, however, just the opposite con- 
dition exists. We are liable to be criti- 
cized, liked or disliked, respected or 
looked down upon, by our associates and 
friends according to the impression that 
we make upon them; and, as it is a 
universal, natural desire to be liked and 
respected, our natural tendency is to 
say and do such things as will make a 
good impression. This desire for win- 
ning approval for its own sake is to be 
expected and is almost universal at some 

129 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

time of life, and in early childhood it is 
not only common but normal. Little 
children need to feel the encouragement 
of praise and the incentives of reward, 
for they have not as yet either the under- 
standing or the will to respond to an 
appeal to principle or law without the 
warming and cherishing effect of natural, 
personal affection; but a young person 
grows strong in character in proportion 
as he learns not to rely upon praise or 
reward as a motive for action, and grad- 
ually to live from obedience to principle 
without undue regard to what anybody 
thinks. 

When the deeper and stronger motives 
of life have thus taken root, when we 
have come to the knowledge of what it 
means to do right for right's sake, these 
deeper motives become part of our in- 

130 






APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

side mind, for we are not waiting to see 
what impression we are going to make 
before we form our judgment as to what 
we shall or shall not do; but in the 
privacy of our own thoughts we decide 
upon the course which seems to us best 
because it is in harmony with true 
principle, and the outside of our mind 
— our speech, our manner, and our ac- 
tions, — will be the direct and true result 
of our inner thought. In this case the 
outside and the inside of the mind are to 
all intents and purposes one mind, be- 
cause they are to each other in the rela- 
tion of cause and effect; for what the 
inner mind thinks and wills the outer 
mind speaks and does. 

But the development of the will which 
results in a life of obedience to principle 
is frequently a very slow development, 

131 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

and for many years we may live along — 
for the most part without knowing it — 
without any real conviction of principle, 
without any real love of good for its own 
sake, without any real passion for truth, 
— only following the lines of direction 
laid out for us by custom, heredity, or the 
desire to accomplish something which 
will bring us either profit, distinction, or 
as little trouble as possible. 

In proportion as this is the case, the 
difference between the life of our outside 
minds and of our inside minds will be 
greater, for the reason that our motives of 
life will be comparatively shallow and will 
leave the whole region of our deeper and 
more private thoughts disconnected from 
the outward habits of our speech and 
action. Hence in this state the human 
house is really divided against itself, for 

132 



APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

what a man thinks in his inmost heart 
may be just the opposite of what he 
speaks in his outer life, and the acts that 
he carries out in his outer life may be 
without the support of his inner con- 
viction. 

But it would be a mistake to suppose 
that the many people in the world who, 
unfortunately, are living shallow and in- 
sincere lives are therefore conscious of 
the fact. We are so constituted that it 
is only the light which we derive from 
actively obeying true principles which 
can reveal to us our true inward condi- 
tion. We have to have a true standard 
before we can make an intelligent com- 
parison or form a true judgment; and, 
when we have no true standard, our 
unconscious conceit or self-complacency 
falsifies our vision so that we practically 

133 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

do not see anything within ourselves as 
it really is. Moreover, if we find our- 
selves doing wrong in outward act and 
coming into conflict with some obvious 
external code of conduct, the same self- 
love or complacency is very quick to 
find excuses or palliations to cover up 
the real reason of our mistake. Hence it 
comes about that, as the years roll on, 
our house becomes more and more di- 
vided against itself; for the inner region 
of our minds absorbs unconsciously the 
evil fruits of our self-love while remain- 
ing in darkness, and the outward habits 
of life become more and more insincere 
and artificial because they are cut off 
from the inner source of their true vitality 
and power. 

It was this state of proud and wilful 
self-ignorance which our Lord was con- 

134 



APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

fronted with in the Pharisees of his day, 
but it is necessary for us to recognize 
the same condition as a very common 
one at all times and among all kinds of 
people in various degrees. It is not 
only the typical Pharisees of our day — 
the proud, learned, and self-righteous 
leaders of public opinion — but a host 
of others, not so conspicuous or promi- 
nent, who are suffering from the dark- 
ness of self -ignorance. But no life 
has probably ever been lived without 
its share of sorrow; and it is mainly 
through the hard experiences and pain- 
ful crises of life that the rays of light are 
permitted to penetrate into this thick 
darkness. In the presence of disaster 
people are more likely to ask themselves 
strict and searching questions to account 
for mistakes or unfortunate happenings 

135 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

which cannot be accounted for in the 
usual superficial ways; and the sense of 
weakness that comes from discovering the 
unreliability of our own personal powers 
often draws out from the depths of the 
inner consciousness a sincere cry for help 
which is really that of a child of God. 
When this happens it means the begin- 
ning of a new and deeper life which will 
welcome the light of truth more and 
more as it reveals all follies and weak- 
nesses that have hitherto kept the soul 
in bondage. 

It is no mere theory or fanciful figure 
of speech which our Lord Jesus Christ 
used when he said that we must be born 
again. " Except a man be born again 
he cannot see the Kingdom of God/ 5 It 
is a sober, practical fact that, if we are to 
develop in character, and usefulness, and 

136 



APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

the capacity for lasting joy, it is abso- 
lutely necessary for us to pass through 
the trial of learning to know ourselves. 
In his own way and in his own good time 
the Lord will open up our spirits so that 
we shall be willing to admit the light of 
his truth and learn to see ourselves 
plainly as we are in his sight. This trial 
will be the test of our own truth; for it 
will prove whether we love his truth 
enough to sacrifice all the personal vani- 
ties and flattering prejudices which stand 
in the way of our being true men and 
women according to God's standard of 
truth. This trial will also test the strength 
of our love so that we shall discover 
whether we love God and our fellow-men 
enough to give up the love of self and of 
the world. 

The passing from complacent self- 
137 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

ignorance, which is the state in which we 
grow up from early youth up to the time 
of our spiritual awakening, to the state 
of intelligent and honest self-knowledge, 
according to the truth as it is in God's 
sight and the standard given to us by 
our Lord Jesus Christ, is the most 
valuable experience which it is possible 
for a soul to undergo. 

It must be that many souls do not have 
this experience in the present life, but 
have to wait until after the death of the 
body before they can clearly see what 
they really are; but, after all, it depends 
upon our own earnestness, and sincerity, 
and courage, whether we shall begin to 
open up in the region of our inner minds 
even now in our earthly life; and so, by 
knowing and accepting the truth, begin 
consciously to travel nearer to the heav- 

138 



APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

enly states of unselfish love, unprejudiced 
truth, and perfect freedom from self. 
There is no possible joy which can com- 
pare with this state of conscious freedom 
and union with God; and it necessarily 
implies a bond of inner friendship with 
every other soul who is ready to receive 
it. But, if we turn to the conditions in 
which we now are, and ask ourselves 
what it is that keeps us from the light 
of self-knowledge more than anything 
else, we shall find that it is a certain 
sensitive shrinking from the very truth 
which would bring us light and life. Let 
us look into our own hearts and see all 
the excuses that we make, all the argu- 
ments that we put forth, all the falsely 
righteous indignation that we pump up, 
to throw down any line of thought or 
any point of view which will hurt the 

139 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

tender spot of our self-love and make us 
feel that we are inferior, cheaper, less 
honorable, or less attractive than we 
have always supposed. We will scratch, 
bite, and sting from the resentment 
aroused in the hornet's nest of selfish de- 
sires and thoughts by a ray of sunlight 
shining down from God's blue sky. 
Falsehood is always shrinking and hiding 
away from truth; and, until we know 
our own falsehood sufficiently to separate 
ourselves from it, and to claim our her- 
itage of light as the free children of our 
Father, we can not enter into his king- 
dom or understand the strength, deli- 
cacy and happiness, of trying to live 
from his spirit. It is not necessary that 
we should succeed all at once, for our 
Father is as reasonable as he is loving 
and just, but it is necessary that we 

140 



APPEARANCES AND REALITY 

should gird up our loins and start with 
real determination and persistency upon 
the journey, — the journey of the real, 
and eternal life. 



141 



Chapter VIII 
Stagnation and Life 

INDIFFERENCE, or being neither 
cold nor hot, is the result of lack of 
passion; and by passion we mean a 
driving force so strong that it is willing 
to suffer in order to gain its end. The 
word passion is used in different senses, 
and it is often associated only with 
evil; but this is not really the truest use 
of the word, for its essential meaning 
is derived from a word that means 
simply to suffer. In this sense it is used 
in the expression, " our Lord's passion 
upon the cross " which means that his 
love for men was so great that no suffer- 

142 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

ing on earth could prevent his devoting 
his life to their cause. All forms of 
heroism imply the existence of passion, 
— imply the existence of a driving energy 
or love for some aim or object outside of 
self which is so strong that it cannot 
possibly be stopped by any personal suf- 
fering, loss, or fear of suffering or loss. 
Of course the nobility of the passion de- 
pends on the purity of the motive which 
actuates it; and heroic deeds performed 
from thirst for fame or distinction can- 
not, of course, be compared in beauty or 
ultimate usefulness with other heroic 
deeds which are done only for the sake 
of duty and which often are entirely 
unknown and never meet with any 
reward or recognition from men. But, 
nevertheless, it is far better to have a 
passion of an inferior kind than to have 

14S 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

no passion at all; and it is also true that, 
as between evils of different kinds, the 
passionate evils that break out with 
tumult and commotion in acts of sin and 
folly are less dangerous and degrading 
than the still, quiescent evils which result 
in death-like, stagnant states of self- 
centeredness. This fact may be verified 
by observation among people whose 
states are sufficiently extreme to make 
their quality easily recognized. At the 
George Jr., Republic, for instance, where 
wayward boys and girls are gathered in 
from the less favored population of our 
large cities, it is not the boys who have 
been arrested for breaking in and bur- 
glary, or for other active crimes and mis- 
demeanors, that are the hardest to deal 
with, ---for, in these boys there is a spirit 
of enterprise or adventure which has in 

144 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

it the germs of life, and which can be 
turned into good and useful channels 
as the darkness of their moral igno- 
rance is cleared away; but the worst and 
hardest cases are those who show no 
great active energy for evil on the out- 
side, but who sit and lean back lazily 
and heavily in states of self-indulgence. 
When the self takes the form of some 
subtle inner selfishness, it is like a worm 
or vampire sucking the life out of the 
spirit of a man, and the result upon his 
apparent character is a listless and lazy 
indifference which is neither hot nor 
cold, for, he has not energy enough left 
either to do any strong good action nor 
to commit any sin which requires the 
expenditure of force. These are those of 
whom it was written, " Would that you 
were either cold or hot! But now, be- 

145 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

cause you are lukewarm, neither hot nor 
cold, I am about to spit you out of my 
mouth/ 5 

The self-centered habit of mind, even 
when it is not associated with any visible 
or tangible self-indulgence, is what chiefly 
stands in the way of unselfish passion; 
and, of course, it is possible to lead lives 
which are outwardly good and respect- 
able, to follow occupations which are 
useful and benevolent, and even to be 
habitually amiable in our relations to 
other people, and, at the same time, to 
do all this with an eye to the praise, ap- 
preciation, popularity, or other rewards 
which we crave for ourselves as our chief 
source of happiness. There is an abun- 
dance of so-called good work carried on 
in the world, — work which is really 
useful and valuable to other people — 

146 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

which proceeds from a desire on the part 
of the worker to benefit himself only, by 
means of doing good to others. This 
thread of self -centered habit runs through 
all the occupations of life, as well as be- 
ing characteristic of people whose only 
avowed object is their own pleasure; 
and it often results in the work being 
done with efficiency, — depending upon 
the talents of the worker, — sometimes 
with quite brilliant success, but never 
with true passion and the living spirit 
that comes through the working of 
an unselfish motive. We may feed the 
stomachs of the hungry, put clothes upon 
the backs of the naked, visit the pris- 
oners in their affliction, and give our 
bodies to be burned, without conveying 
the least particle of spiritual nourishment 
to the life of a fellow-soul; and, although 

147 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

the food, and clothes, and recreation we 
provide for needy persons may be ex- 
tremely useful when combined with some 
spark of living character in their own 
hearts, — some spark of love or grati- 
tude in them, — as far as we are con- 
cerned all such self-centered service be- 
longs to the category of death and has 
no life in it, for it has nothing which con- 
nects us with the spirit of our Lord, — 
nothing of the divine passion which loves 
to have the self denied and disappointed 
for the sake of what is beyond any valu- 
ation or any price. 

It is one of the disadvantages of youth 
that it is apt to have impulses of heroism 
without clear discrimination between the 
essence and appearance of heroic acts. 
In youth we are apt to respond promptly 
to striking examples of obvious heroism 

148 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

without stopping to consider the motives 
and causes which lead to these brilliant 
achievements; and, at the same time, we 
are apt to pass unnoticed on our daily 
walks through life many humble and in- 
conspicuous persons whose spirit par- 
takes of the genuine heroism of unselfish 
passion. If we are sincere in practising 
the regular requirements of spiritual 
growth, — if we are as much in earnest 
as we know how to be in truly acknowl- 
edging our faults and in gradually im- 
proving our habits, our outlook upon life 
will gradually change also, and we shall 
be less easily captivated by sensational 
and dramatic examples of virtue, while 
our appreciation for steady, self-denying, 
and persistent obedience will grow more 
and more profound. 

But what are we to do if we are in 
149 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

bondage — through heredity or long 
habit, — to one or many forms of self- 
centered craving? What are we to do 
if we find, no matter how strongly we try 
to turn away from self in some useful 
work, the self claiming us at once as soon 
as that particular work is done? What 
are we to do if we cannot see the lowly 
and to us uninteresting persons who 
really need our sympathy and love? 
How can our vision become clear while 
we can only see men as trees walking, or 
how can we pierce the deadly covering 
of dullness and lack of interest which 
confronts us while our master is calling 
upon us for loving, joyful and sponta- 
neous service? We must realize that this 
hard shell of selfishness is our natural in- 
heritance and that it provides an ob- 
stacle for the spirit within us to overcome. 

150 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

While we are all born with some form or 
phase of habitual self-love or worldliness, 
we also have, each one of us, a little well- 
spring of life way down in the depths of 
our souls. These two forces are eternally 
opposed to each other, and it is the 
object of our labor and pilgrimage in this 
world to learn to separate ourselves suf- 
ficiently from the temptations of self to 
become aware, as a living reality, of this 
well-spring from on high which is ready 
to pour in life wherever we open for it 
the slightest channel, by removing the 
habits, and thoughts, and desires, that 
belong to death. We must realize that 
our life is a process of growth and change, 
we must not expect to reach perfection 
to-day or to-morrow, but we must learn 
to distinguish more clearly and more 
honestly between what is good and bad 

151 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

in our own hearts. At first the putting 
away of selfish habits may seem like the 
loss of life, but that is only because our 
standard of life is more or less identified 
with selfish enjoyment. If we persist 
faithfully we shall find a new joy in deny- 
ing ourselves for the sake of the new life 
which, when we have become accustomed 
to its workings, becomes joy itself. 

Unselfish passion comes into existence 
when the truth is perceived that no self- 
ish or personal joy or suffering can be 
weighed in the same scale or compared 
by the same measure as the satisfactions 
which come simply to the children of 
God through direct obedience to his 
will. Heroism ceases to be heroism in 
the natural sense when we realize that it 
is only part of the every-day obedience of 
a child of God who sees things and their 

152 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

values simply as they are in the light of 
truth. " What can a man gain if he lose 
his own soul, or what can a man receive 
in exchange for his soul? ' To him who 
asks this question in the simple sincerity 
of conviction, what is there in any way 
remarkable in his preferring to die at 
his post rather than betray a trust, — 
what is there remarkable in his willing- 
ness to risk his own life when duty 
requires of him to stand by his brother in 
peril? The fact is that what the world 
calls heroism is the every-day common- 
place of the Kingdom of Heaven; it is 
the natural result of unselfish passion 
which, as we have said, is a driving force 
which is so strong that no personal con- 
siderations of pleasure or pain can pos- 
sibly impede or obstruct it. It is like 
the still waters that run so deep that 

153 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

they do not attract us with the charm of 
dancing waves or swirling currents, — 
it is the vehicle by which we receive the 
stream of the spirit into the depths of our 
being in order to pour it out, in obedience 
to our divine master, in whatever ways 
the needs of men — our brothers and 
sisters — may demand. If we are slug- 
gish and know that we are, and are dis- 
contented with our own lack of passion, 
then we are not quite dead, for the discon- 
tent which we feel mercifully comes from 
the divine principle within us; but, if we 
are complacent and self-satisfied in our 
sluggishness, and are walking through 
life buoyed up by personal conceit or 
the support of worldly conditions, we 
are to that extent dead, and the spirit of 
our existence is incompatible with the 
humility, and the power, and the joy, of 

154 



STAGNATION AND LIFE 

the spirit of God. Let us, each one, look 
into our own hearts for a clearer vision 
of our aims and habits of life; and let 
us, in all humility, pray to our Heavenly 
Father for persistent earnestness in grow- 
ing nearer to him, until our efforts shall 
be so purified that we shall recognize in 
ourselves at last the self-denying love 
and the unselfish passion which will 
make us the true, free followers of our 
Lord. Nothing can join us completely 
to him except the sharing of the spirit 
of his life, and the spirit of his triumph 
over death and self. 



155 



Chapter IX 
Nerves and Civilization 

IN all ages of the human race, begin- 
ning with the earliest prehistoric 
times, the fact of poetry stands out 
as a witness to the relation between the 
so-called inanimate things of nature and 
the inner life of the heart and mind. 
The mountains, the sea, and the expanse 
of sky, both by night and day, have from 
time immemorial illustrated the great 
facts of strength and breadth and all 
comprehensive unity to the mind of 
man; and the fact that men found these 
same ideas working themselves out as 
essential elements in their own lives gave 

156 



NERVES AND CIVILIZATION 

rise to the deep significance of the beauty 
of nature. Hence poetry is the earliest 
language of the race, expressing, as it 
does, the joy of childhood in the dis- 
covery that the hills, and streams, and 
stars, can speak to man in the language 
of his own heart. 

A great deal of the strain and nervous 
suffering of modern life is due to the fact 
that this ancient teaching of man by 
nature and through nature has fallen 
into disuse and comparative neglect. 
Poetry is no longer an essential part of 
human life as it was in primitive times. 
The connection between human life and 
that of the wonderful world around us 
has been monopolized by science and 
has thus become the special privilege 
of the few. As the particular field of 
highly trained and clever people, nature 

157 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

has lost its significance as the great 
teacher of spiritual truth, and has been 
divided into endless compartments for 
the purpose of expert analysis, and thus 
robbed of its beauty and power as an 
organic whole. 

As poetry has been the great link which 
has bound man's mind to nature by the 
power of beauty, so it has been the in- 
terpreter of that beauty to him in the 
form of spiritual truth. Where the 
leaven of Christianity and its lineal fore- 
runner did not exist, this interpretation 
fell far short of religion, if we mean by 
that word the sense of responsibility or 
of honor which binds us to God; but, 
among the Hebrews, where, even in primi- 
tive times, the nation and the church 
were both founded upon this sense of 
responsibility, all the aspects of nature 

158 



NERVES AND CIVILIZATION 

were full of the teachings of the Most 
High. 

' The heavens declare the glory of 
God," " the little hills clap their hands " 
and " the mountains are carried into the 
midst of the sea." 

The psalms and the prophets are full 
of joy at the loveliness and grandeur of 
the spirit of God as expressed in His 
works, and this joy can only be received 
in its fullness by the childlike and rever- 
ent in spirit. 

Through the practical working out of 
the teachings of the gospel, in acting daily 
from a sense of obligation to what is 
higher than ourselves, and in acknowledg- 
ing and casting off our sins and follies 
from day to day, the channels of the 
heart and mind are kept wide open to 
appreciate the spiritual meaning of 

159 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

beauty in nature and the life-giving 
spirit of God behind it; and there can 
be no doubt that this loving appreciation 
and pure joy in things as God made them 
is nourishing and strengthening to the 
nerves as well as to the heart. 

The worship of his own ingenuity by 
man and his thirst for achievement in 
merely imitating the workings of natural 
law in mechanical ways, — largely for 
purposes of material aggrandizement or 
destruction, — has led to the starvation 
of the race on its higher and simpler side 
of aspiration and reverence. 

In Germany where the whole nation 
seems to be to the highest degree organ- 
ized on scientific lines for the mainte- 
nance of its physical and intellectual 
power, both by industry and war, and 
where the children are trained from an 

160 



NERVES AND CIVILIZATION 

early age, in competition with each other, 
to attain the highest possible standard 
of this sort of efficiency, the strain upon 
their moral natures is so great that their 
nerves frequently give way at an early 
age and there are annually recorded a 
number of child suicides. 

It is not possible, when religion is made 
abortive by convention, and poetry is 
reduced to a clever artificiality, that the 
human heart can be satisfied with what 
remains in the form of domestic affection 
and patriotism. The pride of intellectual 
achievement in any fine starves out the 
fundamental need of humility and wor- 
ship, and this starvation results ulti- 
mately in contracting family affection to 
a mere solidarity of material and worldly 
interests according to a worldly code of 
honor. 

161 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

The inventions of steam and electric 
railroads have made it possible for people 
to live in huge cities where the skyline 
is reduced to a minimum, where forests 
and fields and streams are only memories, 
and where the social atmosphere of the 
street is frequently the condensed essence 
of everything that is destructive and de- 
grading. Those who can afford country 
places in summer-time manage to make 
them as much like cities as they can by 
doing away with the sense of freedom 
and hospitality of the open land; and 
yet, in the interests of material pros- 
perity itself, those who are wise in their 
own generation are raising the cry of 
" back to nature " or " back to the land ' 
as the only real economic remedy. 

But often the very people who are 
loudest in their demand for a return to 

162 



NERVES AND CIVILIZATION 

the simple life would be the last to give 
up the amusements and distractions to 
which they have become accustomed in 
their city life. And, even if they were 
sincerely willing to make the necessary 
material sacrifices, they would find that 
the expected remedy would not be found 
in the life of the country and the open 
air alone. 

Even the country and the open air 
can be spoiled by the social atmosphere 
of those who live there. The healing of 
the country — in addition to exercise and 
work in the open air — lies in the mes- 
sage of beauty which it carries to the eyes 
of those that can see and the ears of those 
that can hear. And, even then, it is pos- 
sible to have keen eyes and ears and to 
enjoy the wonderful forms of life which are 
revealed to them, without catching the 

163 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

least glimpse of the strength and beauty 
they contain for the soul. Even intelli- 
gent and observing eyes and ears are too 
often the servants of the intellect alone 
and do not carry the deepest influences 
to the heart. Only the life commanded 
by our Lord can do this; for only by 
casting off what is destructive and useless, 
and by learning to love more what is 
good and life-giving, do we fall in with 
the rhythm of that divine life which exists 
alike in nature and in the soul of man. 

The difficulties, the obstacles, the prej- 
udices and the conventions which are the 
constant occasion for nervous weakness 
and stumbling cannot exist in the fresh 
air and sunshine of the spiritual life. 
Blessed are those who have been able to 
turn their sufferings to account as a 
means of deeper and truer living, as 

164 



NERVES AND CIVILIZATION 

partakers of a larger life than their own, 
and as witnesses of the reality and eter- 
nity of the spirit. 

In the growing appreciation of univer- 
sal sympathy, and oneness with all 
God's works, both soul and nerves be- 
come receptive to nourishment and heal- 
ing. 



165 



Chapter X 
Social Pride and Contempt 

IN every community there are a cer- 
tain number of unfortunate persons 
who are born with the delusion that 
they are better than other people. This 
delusion has really nothing to do with 
class distinctions when considered as 
such; and, indeed, in countries where 
class distinctions are supported by the 
law of the land and centuries of cus- 
tom, the spirit of snobbishness may not 
exist in so acute a form as it does in 
our own country, where the organiza- 
tion of society is theoretically supposed 

166 



SOCIAL PRIDE AND CONTEMPT 

to be based on justice and individual 
merit. 

Class distinctions may or may not 
be desirable, but there are dangerous 
moral errors and psychological weak- 
nesses derived from the inborn assump- 
tion that " we are as good as anybody 
else and a little better." 

The reason for mentioning class dis- 
tinctions in connection with this very 
common and snobbish attitude is that 
they furnish an excuse and pretext for 
which no valid ground can anywhere be 
found. 

It makes no difference to what we 
attribute the superiority which we claim 
for ourselves and those associated with 
us by ties of blood and social opportu- 
nity. The thing itself — the pride — the 
arrogance — the love of power — the in- 

167 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

solence — the servility — are vile, both 
from a psychological and a moral point 
of view, wherever they are found; and it 
makes no difference whether the false 
assumption is based upon superior culti- 
vation, or wealth, or birth. 

Of course this attitude is common in 
all classes and among all sorts of men, 
but less in communities where daily work 
is accepted as honorable and a matter of 
course than where men and women live 
in luxury and idleness. Moreover, it 
would seem to be worse in communities 
that rely upon the speculations of trade 
and unearned income than where income 
is the logical return for service rendered. 
Children have been known to turn their 
backs upon their fathers and mothers for 
the sake of protecting their positions in 
society, and no end of pettiness and base- 

168 



SOCIAL PRIDE AND CONTEMPT 

ness is actuated by this meanest mani- 
festation of human weakness. 

The fact that people are born into a 
social atmosphere where a certain claim 
of superiority is accepted as a matter of 
course and as a just tribute to inherent 
worth, makes the poison of it very subtle 
and difficult to deal with. Many people 
live for years upon a tacit assumption of 
superior rank which they have done 
nothing to earn, without in the least 
suspecting that their good-natured con- 
descension and familiarity with other 
people are without any real value or 
vitality. The cold shoulder that is 
calmly turned upon a fellow human being 
on account of some trivial irregularity 
of manner or appearance is just as 
deadly in its effect upon the soul of the 
snob as an outspoken expression of con- 

169 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

tempt. But a very important difference 
is this, — because we are so familiar 
with our own sense of superiority, and 
because we are so in the habit of omitting 
or inhibiting the more human impulses 
of fellowship, the contempt and arro- 
gance accumulate in our subconscious 
minds without our being aware of any 
such process; and such accumulations 
steadily and subtly undermine our fac- 
ulty for love and generous service, upon 
which the health or wholeness of every 
human soul and every community must 
ultimately depend. 

This spiritual disease, which expresses 
itself in this country by such absurd ex- 
pressions as the " four hundred," " nice 
people," and the almost obsolete expres- 
sion " polite society," is one of the disin- 
tegrating forces which frequently results 

170 



SOCIAL PRIDE AND CONTEMPT 

in nervous disease, when there is enough 
leaven of good to bring about a conflict 
in the consciousness. 

Of course it is impossible to say how 
it compares in its weakening effects with 
other tendencies to sin, but it is in many 
ways more difficult to deal with than the 
coarser and more obvious vices. It is 
time that we, here in America at least, 
should separate the idea of good breeding 
and social gentleness from association 
with any such ungenerous and unlovely 
conventions as these. It is probable, 
although we seem so far away from the 
spirit of the gospel, that our civilization, 
such as it is, owes more to the spirit of 
Christian teaching than it does to any- 
thing else. It is true that all the saddest 
and most miserable facts of human life 
could be cleared away if men were to 

171 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

follow our Lord's teaching in its simplicity 
and directness for one generation. Is 
it not time for those who feel that they 
enjoy social privileges and opportunities 
to turn their attention to their social 
standards? Should we let our children 
and our young friends admire the as- 
surance of conscious pride and be drawn 
into the circle of its influence, without 
realizing the shocking discrepancy there 
is between such " well bred " assurance 
and the gentleness of modesty? 

You may perhaps object: " But what 
a bore it would be if every one were 
modest and retiring, and we were de- 
prived of the sparkle and wit of self- 
assertion! " 

Yes, it would be a bore if there were 
nothing better to take its place. But, if 
cultivation and wit were under the con- 

172 



SOCIAL PRIDE AND CONTEMPT 

trol of reverence and kindliness, the 
sparkling society of the world would 
have no standing in comparison; in 
fact, even without cultivation or luxury, 
" good society " would be really good 
and happy if it were controlled by the 
reverence and kindliness and truth of 
Christ. 

There is a deeper and a happier culti- 
vation than that of the intellect and 
imagination alone, and it has the power 
of spreading its happiness in a way that 
includes all within the reach of its in- 
fluence; it comes about when the heart 
is cultivated with the mind and pro- 
duces the vitality to which men of all 
kinds are compelled to respond. While 
the way of the " most exclusive 9i is 
toward self-gratification and death, the 
way of the most inclusive is toward a 

173 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

finer and finer appreciation of the lasting 
loveliness of life. It only excludes those 
who can not, because they will not, 
follow; and its dignity can never be 
diminished, because it rests upon the 
worship of the Spirit which is power and 
dignity itself. 

Let us realize that, when stripped of 
their delusive trappings and purely 
ephemeral attractions, the impulses of 
contempt and arrogance and servility 
are breeders of disease which must bear 
bitter fruit and cause deep pain before 
they can be unloaded from the suffering 
soul. The time will surely come for each 
one of us when the glamour of the world 
will fade away and leave these horrid 
things exposed to view in their naked- 
ness. How we shall long then for the 
common human exchange and ordinary 

174 



SOCIAL PRIDE AND CONTEMPT 

fellow-feeling which we had so long de- 
spised. After the glamour has gone, the 
coldness of dejection will have to be 
faced, and how happy will those be who 
are in a position to bring sunshine, — to 
warm the coldness, and to soften the 
hardness of the unhappy proud who will 
have turned servile in their misery! 

These bringers of health, these courte- 
ous and gentle ones, who are strong and 
truthful in their ministrations, will then 
prove to be those who have taken the 
Lord's teaching as it was given and tried 
to practise it in daily life, feeling the 
great bond of human need all around 
them, and feeling also a common fellow- 
ship of happiness in their worship of 
his Spirit. Are not such as these — the 
followers of the Son of Man, who walked 
among men although he was the Son of 

175 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

God — the true gentlewomen and gentle- 
men whom He needs to do His work? 
These have found out, through their own 
experience, the horror of contempt, and 
the grotesque travesty of unselfish love 
known as worldly good-breeding. 



176 



Chapter XI 
Chastity 

CHASTITY is supposed by the 
world to be a merely negative 
virtue: — merely not doing or 
saying or thinking unchaste things. But 
this apparent negative quality of chas- 
tity is only a shallow and false appear- 
ance; for chastity, like everything else, 
must be positive and vigorous in order 
to be truly real and have any life-giving 
power at all. Of course we can refrain 
from external acts of uncleanness, and 
from expressing unclean words, while 
the thoughts of our minds and the de- 
sires of our hearts are full of foulness and 

177 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

corruption. There is not a speck or an 
atom of chastity in such a state as this; 
and, unless the desire in the mind and 
heart is cured, the corruption will break 
its bounds in course of time and express 
itself in outward act and word. 

As a matter of fact, chastity represents 
the most powerful internal force of which 
human nature is capable. All the energy 
of life comes, of course, from the Father 
who is the source of all life. It is from 
his life that we derive the power to love 
or to hate. When we love unselfishly we 
receive his power as he gives it to us 
without perverting it; when we hate, 
we pervert the power of his life as we 
receive it, and turn it against him who 
gave it. But the power is his and from 
him just the same, whether we use it 
according to his will or against his will. 

178 



CHASTITY 

It is from his life that we derive the 
power to think and understand; it is 
from his life that our hearts beat, and 
our lungs breathe, and our blood circu- 
lates; it is from his life that we have 
the power to use our bodies in the most 
external activities. All this life is good- 
ness itself because it is the expression of 
unselfish love and useful wisdom; and, 
whenever we receive any of this love and 
wisdom into ourselves and, without per- 
verting it, turn it into useful energy for 
the benefit of others, we are living 
straight from the Lord with spirit and 
power. 

But the selfish and worldly love in 
which we are all born stands in the way 
of receiving the Lord's life purely and 
turning it, without perversion, into lov- 
ing use. The heavenly life that comes 

179 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

from above and is always knocking at 
the doors of our hearts, is entirely un- 
selfish and true; but it comes up against 
our tendency to selfish love; and then, 
unless the selfish tendency is cleared 
away, the heavenly love cannot flow in 
without perversion. Thus it comes about 
that we must clean out the evil and self- 
ish affections in ourselves, before we can 
receive unselfish power from the Lord in 
its fullness and purity. Hence we must 
do cleansing work before the true life 
from heaven can flow through us; never- 
theless, the cleansing work is only a 
preparation, and the true life from the 
Lord is the real thing. We. are prepar- 
ing to receive life-giving chastity into 
our hearts and minds when we are put- 
ting out, as things that are evil, false, 
and unwholesome, all thoughts and de- 

180 



CHASTITY 

sires in connection with sex, which are 
not filled with unselfishness and rever- 
ence. As we put such thoughts away as 
sins against the Lord, his creative power 
flows into our minds, and, through our 
minds, into our bodies. This creative 
power is chastity itself, and, on all 
planes of life, it is the most powerful 
influence known to man. 

We see the effects of the Lord's creative 
life all around us. We see it in the life of 
the mountains and rivers and oceans; 
we see it in the woods and plants and 
flowers; in the winds and rain; in the 
myriad forms of animal life that inhabit 
the seas and the dry land; we perceive 
it in the planets and stars around us, for, 
if we watch, with our hearts at rest, we 
shall feel the awe of its presence in the 
beauty of the skies at night. All this 

181 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

beauty is alive from nothing else but 
the creative power of God, — which is 
the union of the love of his great heart 
with the wisdom of his infinite mind; 
and, because all these forms of reception 
of the divine life have no choice in that 
reception, they have no power to pervert 
the life they receive; and hence these 
effects of beauty that our eyes see, and 
that our hearts respond to, are nothing 
else but the effects of universal chastity. 
The power which we all have within 
us, to keep our hearts and minds and 
bodies clean and clear for the reception 
of this same creative life, is the inmost 
power of our nature; and thus, as we 
open to receive this life which the Lord 
is always sending us, we receive it as the 
inmost strength and foundation of all 
other life. As we put away all false, 

182 



CHASTITY 

selfish, or frivolous ideas with regard to 
the relations of men and women to 
each other, we receive a strength 
for pure, unselfish love, and a loving 
reverence for order, which is the basis 
and foundation of human sanity and 
character. If our affections and our 
ideas are unselfish and reverent with 
regard to the processes of creative life 
in human nature, we have a sure founda- 
tion laid upon which to build a solid 
spiritual character. But, on the other 
hand, if the mind is unsound and the 
heart corrupt concerning these mysteries 
of our being, no external virtues or tal- 
ents can do us any good, until the rotten 
foundation has been cleaned out and laid 
anew. 

It is necessary to put away all that is 
evil and unclean, as sin against the Lord, 

183 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

but, in so doing, let us remember that we 
are receiving health and cleanliness them- 
selves into the inmost of our characters 
as men and women. We may not shun 
uncleanness only because we do not want 
it, but because it is an insult to the 
Lord's creative life, the effects of which 
we see in all the power and beauty of the 
world around us, and by which we enjoy 
the dignity of being men in the image 
of God. 

A knowledge of this principle is most 
valuable to young and old; and it is an 
especially happy thing when young 
people, as they are growing up, are 
guided to a true knowledge and rever- 
ence for its teachings. It is valuable for 
the single and for the married; and the 
angels in heaven must rejoice when a 
man and a woman consciously join in 

184 



CHASTITY 

marriage, with a common love for the 
principle of unselfishness in all their re- 
lations to each other. Indeed, spiritu- 
ally speaking, although men and women 
may be married according to civil 
and ecclesiastical law, there can be 
no true marriage of their hearts and 
minds excepting in proportion as they 
love and practise the principle of unself- 
ishness and chastity. Without this, their 
marriage has no inward life, but must be 
like a body without a soul. There can 
no more be a marriage of souls without 
chastity, than there can be a fountain 
without water. 

Just as the principle of chastity, or un- 
selfish reverence for the relations of men 
and women, is the fountain of true, 
interior sanity and manhood, so is 
the opposite of it the most dangerous 

185 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

and subtle poison to which poor human 
nature is exposed. It means corruption 
at the heart of things, and we need not 
dwell upon the suffering and deadly 
stagnation and shame to which its indul- 
gence leads. It is the type of the worst 
and most brutal selfishness, whether we 
find it active, as it exists in evil men, or 
whether we find it in the form of the love 
of being admired, as it exists in careless 
women. But we need not follow it to its 
extremes to understand its true nature. 
In its beginnings it may take the form of 
apparently harmless frivolity; and it is 
the duty of every human soul to be 
vigilant against the subtle poison which 
is ready to creep in under frivolous and 
pleasant forms. This is the one subject 
of all others that no self-respecting man 
or woman can afford to treat lightly, for 

186 



CHASTITY 

it involves our lowest possibilities for 
evil and wretchedness, as well as our 
highest possibilities for usefulness and 

joy. 

We are taught that the plan of divine 
order is identical with the order of the 
human form. We are likenesses and 
images of God in so far as we keep our 
hearts loving and our minds true. But 
God is the original man, and our hu- 
manity is, at the best, but an image of 
the Divine Humanity. Not only that, 
but we are taught that the reason why 
we see our ideas reflected in natural ob- 
jects, — the reason why we feel power in 
the mountains and strength in the sea, — 
and order in the whole outward universe 
around us, — is that their nature is based 
upon the same large principles of order 
that our human nature rests upon. That 

187 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

same order exists in the organization of 
our minds, but only becomes manifest to 
the senses in the organization of our 
bodies. Hence it is that our bodies con- 
stitute a type or plan of divine order, — 
in themselves, in our souls, and in the 
visible universe around us. In treating 
our bodies and their functions with rev- 
erence, therefore, we are revering the 
order of the divine wisdom throughout 
creation; and, by the love of unselfish 
chastity, we are putting ourselves into 
direct communication with the stream of 
divine creative power. The love of the 
creative power and the recognition of 
and reverence for its divine order is sanity 
itself, for sanity and order are one. 



188 



Chapter XII 
Spiritual Manhood 

WHAT is an ideal state of Chris- 
tian society? Is it a state in 
which intercourse is always 
smooth and pleasant, in which there is no 
criticism of one person by another, and 
in which all difficulties are adjusted by 
compromise or mutual concession? If 
this were an ideal state of Christian so- 
ciety — the state which would logically 
grow out of the practice of our religion — 
is it not a remarkable fact that the life 
of the Lord Jesus Christ presents so 
conspicuous a contrast to such an ideal? 
His life was neither smooth nor pleasant; 

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NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

there is not a single word of his on record 
which can be interpreted as a mere polite- 
ness; he criticised the men of his genera- 
tion without stint; and, above all, he 
never used pretty words for ugly things, 
but always called all things by their 
right names; he did not hesitate in his 
outspoken assertion of the truth through 
any fear of wounding the feelings or 
shocking the sensibilities of the men 
whose conscience he was working to 
arouse. 

Conventional ideas of the Christian 
religion have given a very general im- 
pression that gentleness and tenderness 
are the most characteristic Christian 
qualities; but where, among the com- 
mandments do we find the injunction, 
" Thou shalt be gentle, thou shalt be 
tender, thou shalt never hurt the feelings 

190 






SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

of thy brother " ? Where, in the Lord's 
life, do we find the example of a single 
act in which mere gentleness is expressed 
without being indissolubly connected 
with the idea of law, of obedience to the 
commandments, or of the qualification, 
" As I have loved you " ? 

The fact is that human nature loves to 
call those things good which are pleasant 
to itself, and thus gentleness and tender- 
ness are esteemed good because they are 
agreeable. In themselves they may be 
either good or bad, but they are almost 
always pleasant, and always convey to 
the superficial mind some sort of a sug- 
gestion of goodness. A man can often 
win his way with gentleness when vio- 
lence would be simply ruin, but this is 
only a worldly commonplace. Gentle- 
ness and tenderness are quite as efficient 

191 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

servants of evil as of good, and quite as 
often tend to undermine character as to 
build it up. There is the tenderness of 
the coward and voluptuary as well as of 
the hero and saint. 

In accordance with the assumption 
that gentleness is a virtue in itself, we 
are often told that we should adjust our 
differences by compromise or mutual 
concession. And in teaching of this kind 
we sometimes do not immediately see 
through the mask of religious conven- 
tionality to the ordinary worldly wisdom 
beneath. We like to adjust difficulties 
by mutual concession because this is 
most frequently the easiest and cheapest 
way out of our troubles. Our poor human 
nature likes to follow along the line of 
least resistance — but we can find no 
compromises in the teachings of the 

192 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

Lord our Master; nor can we find in 
his life and character the least trace of 
a tendency to compromise. To use a 
colloquial expression in a reverent spirit, 
" He was not that kind of a man/ 5 and 
that such teachings find general accept- 
ance among his followers to-day proves 
how far we are from understanding and 
from incorporating into our own lives 
the vigor and independence of his divine 
manhood. 

He healed a man with a withered hand 
on the Sabbath day. By doing this he 
aroused the prejudices of the most re- 
spectable class of society. He might 
have waited twenty-four hours before 
doing his good deed without arousing 
nearly so much antagonism among the 
representatives of conventional law and 
order. He did not choose to wait twenty- 

193 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

four hours; but, looking upon the as- 
semblage around him with indignation 
in his heart, he called out, " Stretch forth 
thine hand! ' ! The hand was healed, the 
hatred and fear of the Pharisees was in- 
creased tenfold, but the principle was 
impressed upon the mind of the human 
race that " the Sabbath was made for 
man and not man for the Sabbath." 

It would have been impossible, of 
course, for our Lord to express in his 
words and life the new development of 
truth he brought into the world without 
exciting the antagonism of the persons 
and institutions who prospered by the 
perpetuation of falsehood. It is one of 
the tests of the vitality of truth that it 
creates a ferment when it falls on sodden 
ground. It could not cleanse, unless it 
first excited the social elements arrayed 

194 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

against it. The instrument of truth 
may fall a victim to the prejudices which 
are aroused, but the truth itself takes 
new hold, strikes its roots deeper, and 
ultimately bears new and better fruit. 

Left to itself human nature is gregari- 
ous both in matters of opinion and in 
standards of conduct. Worldly society 
is ruled by public opinion, and public 
opinion is the opinion of persons in the 
aggregate. Respectability is infectious, 
and so are selfishness and insincerity; 
and, apart from essential religion, there 
is no force which can raise our civiliza- 
tion beyond the standards of material 
well-being. The civil law is something 
more than a collection of personal opin- 
ions, having a distinct and recognized 
relation — however approximate — to the 
moral law, but this can only control the 

195 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

outward acts of men and women, and 
cannot seriously influence the motives 
and characters of men without an appeal 
to public opinion and worldly respecta- 
bility as the ultimate moral standard. 

If we divest religion of all its merely 
conventional appurtenances, we find that 
it introduces among men a force en- 
tirely distinct from any other, both in 
its origin and in its effects. For here 
we find the reign of law without any 
appeal to personal opinion. In so far 
as a man's conduct is based upon obedi- 
ence to the law of righteousness from 
love to him who gave that law, and from 
love of righteousness itself, — in so far 
is a man religious and no further. The 
unselfishness of the motive is just as 
important as the unselfishness of the 
act, so that the law must be kept in the 

196 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

motive as well as in the act. In essential 
religion there is no obedience which is not 
obedience of the whole man — from his 
inmost thought to his outmost word and 
act; and it follows logically that he can- 
not do good for the sake of praise, or repu- 
tation, or profit, or good will, or a smooth 
and pleasant life, but only from love and 
obedience to his Father, — the All Good 
and Wise. In obedience, however, to his 
Father's command, he is to love and 
serve all other men — he is to further 
the interests of his brother as his own. 

This implies a double relation — the 
one to a Divine Superior, the other to all 
men as brothers and as equals in his 
sight. Man's duty to God is loving 
obedience, his duty to his fellow-man is 
loving service and usefulness. His rela- 
tion to his God is that of a child, and is 

197 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

concerned with commandments and prin- 
ciples; his relation to his brother man 
is concerned with usefulness in carrying 
out those commands in a friendly spirit. 
We must never lose sight of the fact 
that a true principle is divine law, and 
that our relation to such a principle is 
just as distinct from our relation to any 
mere human opinion, as our duty to 
God is distinct from our duty to man. 
If we confuse these things, which in their 
nature are as separate as the infinite is 
separate from the finite, we lose all clear 
guidance for our spiritual life. If we be- 
come respectful followers of human opin- 
ion as such, we cannot possibly appreciate 
and worship the beauty of divine law; 
and, if we are true followers of divine law, 
we cannot do our fellow-men the absurd 
injustice of worshipping at the shrine of 

198 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

their mere opinions. Hence it is very 
important that we should early learn to 
recognize the difference between law and 
opinion, and give our whole allegiance 
to principles rather than to persons. 

If we undertake to follow this path it 
will lead us directly into the realities 
of the spiritual life; for there is only one 
way of learning to understand the mean- 
ing of a 'principle, and that is to act upon 
it in practical life. The result of such an 
effort is to lead us to a recognition of the 
falsehoods and prejudices with which 
our minds are unconsciously burdened 
through love of self and of the world. 
When true principle — as distinguished 
from the leading of persons or opinions 
— is consistently followed, it has the 
same effect upon our hereditary evils and 
falsehoods as the words of our Lord — 

199 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

when he healed the man with the with- 
ered hand — had upon the assembled 
Pharisees and scholars. It stirs them up 
so that we may become conscious of 
them and shun them as sins against him. 
The courage required to face the ugly 
facts thus presented to our attention 
with a whole-hearted sincerity is the be- 
ginning of spiritual manhood. 

It is the beginning of the state of 
spiritual warfare by which alone life- 
giving power is acquired. But, if we 
persist in this course steadfastly for any 
length of time, we shall very soon find 
our activity opposed by influences out- 
side of ourselves as well as within. The 
prejudices and selfishnesses which we 
first had to meet and combat in our own 
minds, we shall eventually have to meet 
in the minds of others; and thus will our 

200 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

warfare be extended beyond the range 
of our own personalities to that of our 
social environment — in whole or in part. 
It is a hard experience when we find our- 
selves, for the first time, in an attitude 
of direct opposition to old friends whom 
we have looked up to in the past as em- 
bodiments of wisdom; and our only guar- 
antee against delusion or self-deception 
is the fact that we are opposing in other 
people things which we have already 
fought against in ourselves, because we 
have found them evil and false. We 
cannot possibly fight against evil in 
others without fighting the same evil in 
ourselves; and thus we realize, more 
and more, that it is not persons we are 
opposing, but false principles as distinct 
from true. There is only one way in 
which we can determine whether a prin- 

201 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

ciple is true or not, and that is by testing 
it in our lives with a humble willingness 
to acknowledge our mistake if we find 
that we are wrong. The power to up- 
hold true principle, after the necessary- 
tests have been undergone, against the 
wilfulness or prejudice of other men, is a 
sign of the further development of spiri- 
tual manhood. 

From the point of view of spiritual 
truth no affection can be called love that 
is not entirely disinterested; and there- 
fore such love must be independent of the 
praise or blame, the respect or contempt, 
or, in one word, the opinion of men. We 
can love men in order that they may 
love us, but we should love them in 
order to give them the benefit of our 
own experience, and receive from them 
the benefit of theirs in learning to under- 

202 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

stand and to carry out the commands 
of our Father. The root of the spiritual 
life is our relation to the Father, the 
branches and fruit reach out to men 
and women, — our brothers and sisters. 
When a man or a woman has begun the 
process of living from principles and not 
from persons, and has learned to welcome 
every criticism that may throw light 
upon his own character, he will find the 
greatest help in the loving cooperation 
of other men and women who are walking 
upon the same path. 

We are all at least partially uncon- 
scious of our faults, even when we are 
painfully conscious of some of them; 
and if we can be lovingly guided to a 
fuller knowledge of them, this knowledge 
will enable us to repent and to become 
clean much more rapidly and vigorously 

203 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

than when working along by ourselves 
alone. Guidance of this kind must be 
impersonal, unselfish, kindly, and re- 
ciprocal in spirit. It requires earnest- 
ness, sincerity, and a willingness to suffer 
for the sake of our obedience. It cannot 
always be called kindly in the ordinary 
sense, for it involves, at times, the loving 
infliction of pain — but never without 
the full and willing consent of the suf- 
ferer. Nothing can be further removed 
from such discriminating guidance than 
the ordinary faultfinding of the world. 
It may indeed express itself on the sur- 
face in similar words, but in its spirit, 
in its essence, and in its results, it is 
exactly the opposite. When two or 
three are gathered together in our Lord's 
name to work his will, the single bond 
which keeps them together, and which 

204 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

enables them to do their work, is their 
common love of him, of his teachings, 
and of each other as his children. If one 
of them were to take the opinion of the 
others as law, their usefulness would 
cease and the ground of their fellowship 
would fall to the ground; but, when all 
are willing with perfect frankness quietly 
to discuss their personal opinions in the 
light of impersonal principle, their agree- 
ment is only a question of time and of 
willingness to put away all prejudices 
and ideas derived from selfishness and 
worldliness. Whatever spiritual work a 
man is willing and able to do in himself, 
that he is willing and able, when called 
upon, to help others to do in themselves; 
and the general willingness throughout 
a community to receive and to give 
criticism with affectionate and open 

205 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

frankness, for the sake of truth, is the 
standard to which we are led as the ideal 
standard of Christian society. 

When, as is most commonly the case, 
such willingness and openness do not 
exist, human nature is obliged to hide 
behind a general external good humor 
and politeness to protect itself from the 
impulses of meanness and falsehood 
which would otherwise flow out and 
shock public opinion; but, when they 
are steadfastly and sincerely permanent, 
we acknowledge the outward symptoms 
of evil that we do not want, in order that 
the evil itself may be clearly recognized 
and removed. A religious community in 
which this willingness and openness do 
not exist is only a worldly society with a 
veneer of pious custom and phraseology. 
No essential religion can exist among 

206 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

men, excepting in so far as they subor- 
dinate their self-love, their vanity and 
pride — individually and collectively — 
to their love of understanding and of 
living the principles of unselfish truth. 
Without such subordination their per- 
sonal interests, personal affections, the 
thousand pleasantnesses of domestic and 
social life, will inevitably tend to draw 
them away from the single-minded pursuit 
of useful service in obedience to their 
Father; but the measure of their spiritual 
manhood will be indicated by their power 
to distinguish between an easy subserv- 
ience to persons and an arduous and 
difficult faithfulness to eternal principles. 
The tenderness that flows out of this 
kind of love is all alive with the strength 
of the truth upon which it rests. It is a 
tenderness which does not depend upon 

207 



V 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

time or place or circumstance, for it is 
connected with the love of principles 
which are independent of all such con- 
siderations. It is the tenderness of love 
which cares for all children, instead of 
caring only for those who have been 
intrusted to our immediate care as par- 
ents. It feels the brotherhood of all 
men. It resents special privilege as 
injustice to the human brotherhood. It 
knows when to foster and to cherish; 
when to be patient and endure; and 
when to stand up and fight — or die. 

Voltaire said that the trouble with 
good people was that they were cowards; 
and, if we understand by " good people '' 
the conventionally religious people, it 
would seem as if his remark were appli- 
cable to our own times. For, if we 
analyze the motives actuating the minds 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

of the conventionally religious, we shall 
find them largely tainted with selfish 
fear. We do not often form our decisions 
or lay our plans according to a clean regard 
for truth and service. Our plans and opin- 
ions are modified and moulded in a thou- 
sand ways by the effect that they will 
produce upon the minds of other men; 
and this not for their sakes but for the 
sake of the effect of their opinion upon us. 
Their opinions are largely made up of 
similar personalities and prejudices, and 
thus we find our sphere of usefulness 
limited not only by our own personal de- 
ficiencies of character, but by those of 
the friends to whom we bow in deference. 
This kind of reciprocal subserviency, al- 
though it keeps things smooth on the 
outside, is a most corrupting influence 
upon the well-springs of the spiritual life. 

209 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

It is infinitely better to have convictions 
of our own and to act upon them fear- 
lessly — even if we incur certain outward 
failure — than to live along in mild con- 
cession, surrounded by the approval of 
those who would like to make either re- 
ligion or no religion subservient to the 
ease and pleasantness of life. 

Essential religion has nothing to do 
with this kind of ease and comfort. It is 
nothing at all, unless it is based upon 
the truth of principle as a matter of 
obedience to divine law, and not as a 
matter of worldly wisdom or human ap- 
probation. Although we must be careful 
not to make our brothers " to offend," 
and must have due regard for the appear- 
ance of good, which to many of them is 
as yet the whole of their religion, yet far 
more important than this duty is that of 

210 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

distinguishing between the living strength 
of life from obedience to principle — 
which is the life of our spiritual manhood 
— and the tame, subservient habit of 
following the examples and opinions of 
other persons for the sake of ease, ex- 
pediency, human approbation, and per- 
sonal influence. 

From the spiritual point of view there 
is no compromise possible between these 
two courses — for the one means life and 
the other death. The tenderness that 
springs from regard for appearances and 
ease is weak and worldly; but that which 
springs from a sturdy love of principle, 
and the spiritual interests of our brother 
man, gives strength and life. The es- 
sence of love is not tenderness, it is un- 
selfish power; and when true gentleness 
springs from this true source it comes 

211 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

with, life-giving dignity and grace. The 
gentleness that is so strong that it will 
die rather than give up the least particle 
of truth for the sake of any human consid- 
eration, comes from him who healed the 
man with the withered hand on the Sab- 
bath day; from him who taught us to 
love our enemies; to bless them that 
curse; to do good to them that hate, and 
to pray for them who persecute. This 
gentleness is only possible as the out- 
ward effect of great interior power. We 
cannot acquire it by imitation. Unless 
it is based upon a cheerful willingness to 
endure for the sake of the truth, it is but 
a forgery of what is at once the most 
lovely and the most powerful influence 
in life. The desire to please and to be 
pleased, with its concessions and com- 
promises, can only lead us further and 

212 



SPIRITUAL MANHOOD 

further away from the true gentleness 
which has its source in the truth and 
power of the Lord. 

As we overcome our own selfishness 
we receive that divine power into our 
hearts; and, as we turn our backs upon 
the world, our hearts open with loving 
tenderness toward the needs of our 
fellow-men. We cannot keep one eye 
upon the righteousness of this world and 
the other upon the truth of God's king- 
dom; for this results in a feeble dishonesty 
of vision, which is foreign to the simplicity 
of spiritual manhood. It is only the 
strong and single-minded who can be 
truly tender. 

" A bruised reed shall he not break, 
and the smoking flax shall he not quench: 
he shall bring forth judgment unto 
truth." (Isaiah xlii, 3.) 

213 



Chapteb XIII 
The Spiritual Life 

ALL through his teaching, our Lord 
emphasizes the dual nature of 
man; he speaks to Nicodemus of 
a second birth, implying that man has 
two natures, — the one coming into being 
at the time his body is born into the 
world, and the other coming into being 
at some future time which is as uncertain 
as the direction of blowing gusts of wind. 
The second birth depends for its coming 
on the growth of man's inner spirit, and 
the state of that inner spirit, hidden 
away in the depths of his consciousness, 
can be fully known only to God himself. 

214 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

But, although the beginning of the 
spiritual life, or the time of being born 
of the spirit, cannot be certainly pre- 
dicted for any human soul, our Lord's 
teachings on the one hand, and our own 
experience, on the other, provide clear 
principles for our guidance, as soon as 
our consciousness has become awakened 
to our spiritual responsibilities. 

The journey through the narrow gate 
and up the steep ascent is not without 
its sign-posts and landmarks for the 
traveler; and, besides the great principles 
which are laid down for our guidance 
in the gospel, there are many little signs 
and marks along the roadside made for 
our benefit by those who have preceded 
us on the way. 

The word " spiritual " has been so 
much abused, and has been employed so 

215 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

much to represent ideas that are vague, 
dream-like and impractical, that it is 
important that we should make a special 
effort to grasp as clearly as possible 
its definite and specific meaning. In 
order to do this it will perhaps be 
well to say at the outset a few things 
which the word "spiritual" does not 
mean. 

In the first place, although spiritual 
truth, when expressed in spoken or 
written language, is most appropriately 
and beautifully clothed in poetry — and 
of course we include under that head the 
Hebrew poetry of the prophets, which 
had neither rhyme nor rhythm in the 
ordinary English sense — nevertheless 
spiritual truth is not what we call poetry 
— poetry being merely the form through 
which it is often best expressed, and the 

216 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

spiritual truth being the essence or spirit 
within the poetic form. 

Then, again, spiritual truth is not the 
same as what we call intellectual truth; 
for the conclusions of the intellect are 
arrived at by observations of outward 
fact and by reasoning from those obser- 
vations (or, as it is sometimes expressed, 
the intellectual faculty consists of in- 
ductive and deductive reasoning). Now 
this is not true of spiritual perception; 
although the intellectual faculty, with its 
power of observation and reasoning, is 
used as its servant, the spirit possesses a 
light of its own which it derives through 
its own experience from the use of the will 
in accordance with spiritual law. 

Least of all is the spiritual faculty 
to be confused with the emotional sensa- 
tions or forms of religious excitement 

217 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

which are so often supposed to be the 
accompaniments of a lofty so-called 
spiritual condition. Just as the percep- 
tions of the spirit are clear and keen in 
their own department of life, which is 
that of character and growth, so are its 
activities and energies quiet and power- 
ful. If we want a type of the spiritual 
life taken from the world of nature around 
us, we should take the steady and quiet 
glow of the sunshine in the heavens rather 
than the sensational and brilliant fire- 
works of man's invention, — or should 
think of the stillness of deep waters far 
beneath the visible surface of the sea, 
rather than of the tumultuous waves on 
the top with their foam and froth lashed 
into fury by the restless winds. Noise and 
sensation and dramatic effect are things 
which are zealously cultivated by man in 

218 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

his endeavor to give an effect of power 
which he frequently does not possess; 
but, even in outward nature around us, it 
is not the thunder-storms or the earth- 
quakes that express the regular, normal, 
underlying power of life. These compara- 
tively sensational manifestations of life 
make more of an impression upon us, for 
the very reason that they are exceptional 
and relatively infrequent. The great 
bulk of the power that is carrying the 
immense burden of physical life by which 
we are surrounded is as steady and silent 
as it is powerful and majestic. 

The spiritual life comes when we begin 
to long to live in accordance with God's 
will rather than our own — steadily and 
quietly — and then we try to live in such 
a way as to receive his spirit into our- 
selves; thus our lives become harmo- 

219 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

nized with the life of his spirit outside of 
ourselves, or the underlying life of God's 
world all around us. 

It is a great joy when we first begin to 
realize with conviction the fact that 
Divine Power, with all its omnipotence 
and majesty, is, for the most part, quiet, 
and clear, and gentle in its operations. 
And then, believing as we do that this 
same Divine Power — in so far as we can 
grasp its nature at all — is pure, un- 
selfish love and unprejudiced truth re- 
sulting in all the abundance and fruitful- 
ness of life, it is a wonderful and satisfy- 
ing thing to associate all that quiet, 
gentle, omnipotent power with our ideas 
of human sincerity and love. This is as 
near as we can get to a definition of the 
spiritual life. It is the kind of practical 
life which enables us to receive into our 

220 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

wills and intelligences a certain small 
measure of this divine unselfishness and 
truth, and to act it out in our daily lives 
in accordance with the will of our Father 
in heaven. 

If we were born with a ready-made 
consciousness of our relation to God, and 
with a loving desire to find our happiness 
in ways of his choosing rather than our 
own, there would be no pain, struggle, 
or difficulty in learning to live the spiri- 
tual life, — there would be no need of 
" being born again. 55 But we need the 
discipline of working out of the natural 
state of self-love and worldliness into the 
larger life, in order to give us the strength 
which we shall be called upon to use here- 
after. Hence it comes about that our 
life here — whenever growth is active 
and normal — consists of continually 

221 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

casting off certain affections, ideas, habits, 
and impulses which belong to our natural 
state, because we find that they are not 
worthy of the higher standard which is 
already within the reach of our under- 
standing and reverence, although not yet 
completely in the grasp of our will. 

This process of casting off old things 
for the sake of receiving new life is what 
John preached when he said, " Repent, 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
Repentance is not necessarily a painful 
thing to go through; it is not to be con- 
fused with the sorrow of humiliation and 
wounded pride. These latter are painful 
states which succeed times of sinful in- 
dulgence, but may or may not be accom- 
panied by true repentance. In propor- 
tion as repentance is wholesome and un- 
mixed with morbid self-reproach, it be- 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

comes more and more of a daily habit 
of the will. As time goes on it ceases to 
be painful to find out where we have done 
wrong, because we associate the dis- 
covery with an increase of light. While 
the Gospel teaches us that we should aim 
at perfection, it also clearly shows that 
man in himself is not perfectible. From 
our very nature we are always dependent 
upon the inflow of light and life from a 
source higher than ourselves; and the 
degree with which we grow depends 
largely upon the humility with which we 
recognize our own personal inferiority 
to this higher power. While in the natu- 
ral and worldly life we can get along very 
well without humility, it is impossible 
for us to do so in the spiritual life, 
because humility is nothing more or 
less than common sense and intelli- 

223 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

gence in recognizing our true relation to 
God. 

Self-knowledge and repentance, then, 
are the first steps along the steep and 
narrow path which we call the spiritual 
life. It is described as steep and narrow 
because of the disposition of our natural 
minds to resist the operation of the 
Divine Spirit. Our first discoveries in 
self-knowledge are always bound to be 
painful; and, if we happen to have a 
good share of pride or vanity in our dis- 
position, it is apt to be humiliating as 
well. But, when the first discoveries in 
self-knowledge have been made — when, 
for instance, we have found out through 
some searching crisis of life, that we are 
not as clear in our honor, as clean in our 
chastity, or as unselfish in our relations 
to others as we had always taken for 

224 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

granted — when these discoveries first 
dawn upon a newly awakened layer of 
intelligence and a deepening faculty of 
conscience, and we turn at once to the 
task of strengthening all the weak places 
in our character by a stricter and more 
loving obedience to God, the mortifica- 
tion of self in time gives way to a new 
and invigorating sense of increased energy 
and life. But we get to know our own 
particular selfish nature in proportion as 
we overcome it; and, in course of time, 
the self-knowledge thus acquired serves 
as an enlightening foil or contrast to the 
goodness and truth which we worship 
in God, and from which we draw our 
supply of spiritual life which, with faith- 
ful work on our part, continually in- 
creases both in delicacy and power. The 
way in which we open to receive the 

225 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

power of this new life, when we have once 
acquired the habit of daily repentance 
and increasing self-knowledge, is by con- 
centrating all our powers both of will and 
of intelligence upon prayer and action in 
its broadest sense. By praying for the 
good and truth, for the unselfishness and 
sincerity in which we find ourselves lack- 
ing; — and by determined and repeated 
efforts to carry out our new standards 
in detail in the specific acts of daily life, 
we open our faculties of will and of intel- 
ligence to receive the inflow of the Spirit. 
The pain of the spiritual life must vary 
with individuals according to the depth 
and persistency of their inheritance of 
evil, and according to the amount of 
self-indulgence during their past fives. 
When habits are deep-seated — and es- 
pecially when they have gained control 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 

over the nervous system — there must 
necessarily ensue a long process of change, 
fraught with pain and weakness, before 
the whole system can be fully restored 
and put upon a sound basis. 

But, whether the change from natural 
to spiritual life be more or less painful, 
the pain must in all cases give way in 
time to a new joy which is beyond the 
comprehension of such as know only 
natural happiness, and which is a fore- 
taste of life in the spiritual world. 



227 



Chapter XIV 
The Spiritual World 

IT is a mistake to think of the spiritual 
world or the spiritual life as some- 
thing which will only begin to exist 
when these natural bodies of ours 
have died. We all have our roots in the 
spiritual world already, or it would 
be impossible for us to live as we do now; 
for all this world of sense in which we 
consciously move draws its life and power 
from that other world of which we are at 
present for the most part unconscious. 

The spiritual world, therefore, is the 
world of causes, while this visible world 
about us is a world of effects, but it is 

228 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

only through our own hearts and minds 
that we can penetrate into the world of 
causes. We do this by living according 
to the underlying principles of life which 
have been taught to the human race in 
various forms for thousands of years in 
the past, but which have been most fully 
revealed by the life and teachings of 
Christ* When we live according to the 
principles which he taught, and still 
more when we have practised these 
principles long enough to realize their 
power for human happiness, we are then 
living in a way which opens us most 
fully to the reception of spiritual forces 
and influences from the spiritual world, 
and this also opens our minds to an appre- 
ciation of what that work and what that 
life really are. 

But we must remember that there is 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

evil as well as good in the spiritual world; 
and that, when we will, and think, and 
do evil in this world, we are attracting to 
ourselves evil influences from the spiritual 
world. I remember some one coming to 
a friend of mine and describing the fits 
of passionate anger to which she was sub- 
ject. She said that they were like a 
blast of burning air that seemed to blow 
through her and compel her to say angry 
things. My friend quietly turned to her 
and said, " Why, that is just what they 
are, — they are burning blasts from hell." 
The woman's anger, which she had not 
yet learned to control, attracted by its 
peculiar vibrations evil influences of 
the same kind in the spiritual world, so 
that her own evil impulses were rein- 
forced and strengthened until she herself 
had no control over them whatever. 

230 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

This seems to be what always happens 
when we lose our self-control from any 
selfish impulse; and it is not only the 
case with the more violent passions, but 
also with the chronic, lazy, and indolent 
habits of self-indulgence to which we are 
prone. We attract to ourselves just the 
same quality of evil or good in which our 
own spirits are; but there is this differ- 
ence between the evil influences and the 
good ones, that the evil influences are 
violent, or vindictive and tyrannical, 
while good influences are gentle, and 
quiet, and delicate in their operation. 

When we realize that the power of our 
life is derived from the spiritual world, 
whether for good or evil, we begin to feel 
that our interest in it affects our interest 
in the present even more than it does our 
concern for the future. 

231 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

Of course every one is interested in the 
question of immortality, but that ques- 
tion really settles itself when we begin to 
understand the fact that we draw our 
life from the spiritual world at the pres- 
ent time. Our Lord gave us certain prin- 
ciples of action which we were to follow 
in accordance with his example; and, as 
we get genuinely interested in practising 
these principles of life, we become more 
and more conscious of the fact that our 
souls are living in the spiritual world at 
the present time; and that our spiritual 
life, although of course controlling our 
natural life, is nevertheless quite distinct 
from it. Although our spiritual life very 
largely affects the states of our bodies, we 
nevertheless feel that it is independent of 
our bodies; and that, when the time comes 
to lay aside our bodies as we would a suit 

232 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

of clothes that is worn out, our spiritual 
life will go on about the same. But with 
this difference, that we shall be relieved of 
the weight and the associations of our 
natural bodies ; and that, if our characters 
have become strong and our spiritual life 
vigorous, we shall gradually emerge into 
an atmosphere more congenial to us than 
that which we have left behind. Thus 
the sense of the existence of a life after 
death is more a matter of perception re- 
sulting from obedience to the Lord's 
commandments and his spiritual prin- 
ciples, than it is a matter of scientific 
investigation or inquiry. 

He said of course that immortality was 
true; that God is the God of the living 
and not of the dead; and that in his 
Father's house are many resting-places; 
but he took no pains to argue the matter, 

233 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

as far as we know, and it was as if he said : 
" Love one another as I have loved you," 
" repent," " he that keepeth my com- 
mandments he it is that loveth me; '' 
if you do all these and travel along this 
road, your eyes will be opened and you 
will see that you are already in the life 
eternal. 

If we should inquire what is the best 
way of becoming confirmed in the spiri- 
tual life, so that we may be conscious of 
ourselves as spirits living in eternity 
rather than as natural men living only 
in time, — and so that all the things be- 
longing to eternity may seem to us more 
important and real than those things 
which belong to the life of our senses 
alone, it would probably be safe to an- 
swer that the only means of doing this 
is by overcoming temptation. 

234 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

Our temptations are the landmarks of 
our spiritual growth or decline; for in 
temptation we have to choose between 
good and evil, and it is only in tempta- 
tion that we come into real contact with 
evil; while, at the same time, by over- 
coming the evil, we come into real and 
actual contact with good. We may talk 
about evil without knowing really any- 
thing of it from our own experience, and 
we may talk about good in the same 
way; but we cannot overcome tempta- 
tion without going through a process 
which teaches us the actual reality of 
good and evil, and of the difference be- 
tween the two. Thus it is that, when 
temptation has been overcome, the will 
is strengthened because it has done real 
work, and thus attracts good and 
strengthening influences from the spiri- 

235 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

tual world. With these good and strength- 
ening influences of power comes a finer 
perception of the truth, and for this 
reason we never understand any evil 
thing more thoroughly than when we 
have conquered it in temptation; nor 
can we appreciate fully the power of 
good until we have actually felt it work- 
ing in our hearts in the process of over- 
coming evil. 

There are people who think that knowl- 
edge of evil comes from yielding to temp- 
tation, but this is not true, because the 
evil itself stupefies the mind and dulls the 
conscience; it is the man or woman who 
has been tempted and who has conquered 
who knows most about both good and evil 
and understands their true significance. 
The worldly man knows less than any- 
one about the world as it really is. 

236 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

Thus every temptation conquered opens 
the way for a more ample inflow of life 
and power from the spiritual world, and 
this increased life and power makes us 
just so much better able to meet the next 
temptation and to do our work and be 
of use to one another. For the more 
firmly our feet are planted upon the 
spiritual foundation of our lives the 
better instruments we shall be of the 
Lord's love and wisdom among men. 
When we yield to temptation, on the 
other hand, we are attracting all the in- 
fluences which tend to keep us in evil and 
are making it harder for us to succeed 
when the time comes that we really de- 
sire to be free. This genuine awakening 
of the spirit comes at different times with 
different persons, and often does not 
begin until the consequences of evil or 

237 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

carelessness have become unendurable; 
then, when we can no longer bear the 
torture which our weakness has brought 
in its train, we first cry to our Father 
for deliverance — not because we love 
him or want to do his will, but because 
we cannot bear the suffering which our 
disobedience entails. But our Father 
welcomes his prodigal child even though 
he may turn homeward at first only to 
escape from the misery of his distress. 
Obedience, however, never fails to bring 
life into the heart, and gradually the 
poor slave, who at first would only do 
right for the sake of avoiding punishment, 
is raised to the position of a child, who, 
though often rebellious, trusts his Father 
and knows that in the end his divine will 
is best. He grows in this way by over- 
coming temptation; and* as he grows, 

238 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

his spiritual perceptions are awakened, 
until he begins to understand his true 
relation to God, his utter dependence 
upon him, the beauty of the commands 
which he imposes, the loveliness of his 
will, and the condition of immortality 
in which his spirit lives. 

The scheme of life, of which the idea 
of immortality is a part, is a deep, and 
true, and large scheme of life which is 
not seriously taken account of by the 
world. The world lives, as we know, as 
if the immortal life were a pleasant 
theory regarding the future, but not 
immediately connected with present 
practical affairs. The world's scheme of 
life does not really include anything but 
the visible life of the body; and its stand- 
ards of what is worth while, or what is 
worth having, are based almost entirely 

239 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

on material and temporary considera- 
tions. But although, when we are young, 
our present life seems practically un- 
limited in the future, those of us who 
have passed the turning-point of middle 
life, keep realizing more and more how 
short what we call a lifetime really is; 
and all the young people will pass the 
same turning-point, before long, while we 
are in what are called our declining years. 
They are declining years of growing weak- 
ness, according to the world's scheme of 
life; but, in the light of the spirit, we can 
perceive that they are also the beginning 
of a new chapter in our lives in which 
only God's great and eternal scheme of 
life will be taken into account. 

When once we are fully and seriously 
started upon the path of interior develop- 
ment taught us by our Lord Jesus Christ, 

240 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 

we shall, as time goes on, feel the strength 
of his spirit constantly renewing our 
youth in preparation for the time when 
we shall all be as little children; — not 
as little children in ignorance of evil, 
but as mature little children who are in 
the innocence of wisdom. 

" He giveth power to the faint; and 
to them that have no might he in- 
creaseth strength. Even the youth shall 
faint and be weary, and the young men 
shall utterly fall; but they that wait 
upon the Lord shall renew their strength; 
they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; 
they shall run, and not be weary; and 
they shall walk, and not faint." 

If we firmly take our stand upon 
spiritual principles now, it will save us 
much labor and much suffering in the 
future when the time comes that we shall 

241 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

no longer have the power to choose, 
when all things that are hidden shall be 
revealed, and when we shall all be tried 
and tested — not according to the world's 
standards of what is agreeable or proper, 
but according to God's standard of things 
as they are. 



242 



Chapter XV 
Genuine Love 

THERE are as many kinds of love 
as there are kinds of people; but 
we have an absolute standard of 
love given to us in the New Testament, 
which is that we should love one another 
as our Lord has loved us, and is loving 
us to-day and every day. 

The first characteristic of our Father's 
love is its unselfishness. He is love itself, 
and does not derive his love or life from 
any other source or being. He himself 
is the source of all love and life, and he 
is giving himself out all the time to the 
whole of his universe, of which we, his 

243 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

children, are a part. Because this giving 
out of his own life to others contin- 
ually is absolutely unselfish, therefore 
it is absolutely steady and permanent. 

" Every good gift and every perfect gift 
is from above, and cometh down from 
the Father of lights, with whom is no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning.' 9 

We, in our selfish weakness, find it 
comparatively easy to love those who 
treat us well, and our love for our fellow- 
men varies according to our likes and 
dislikes, and according to the way in 
which people respond to our love. But 
the love of our Father is steady and 
strong, and does not depend on the way 
in which it is received. Its operation for 
joy and usefulness among men does de- 
pend on the way men receive God's love 
into their hearts and lives; but the heart 

244 



GENUINE LOVE 

of God himself is just as loving in its 
affection for the evil as the good — for 
the unresponsive as the responsive. It 
is like the steady warmth and light of 
the sun, which is always radiating and 
shining above the clouds; our selfish 
affections are the clouds that stand in 
the way of our receiving God's love; 
but this love itself is always there, and, 
no matter how many clouds may prevent 
the passage of pure warmth and light 
to the earth below, they can never stop 
the shining in the sky above. 

It is the greatest mistake to imagine 
for one moment that the evil and unhappi- 
ness in the world is the result of any in- 
equality in the love of God — the love 
of the Father constitutes the very life 
of us all; " but the life that flows in is 
received by every one according to his 

245 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

character; good and truth are received 
as good and truth by the good; " while by 
the evil and selfish the Lord's good and 
truth in them is changed into evil and 
falsity. " It is comparatively like the 
light of the sun, which diffuses itself 
into all objects upon the earth, but is re- 
ceived according to the quality of each 
object, and becomes of a beautiful color 
in beautiful forms, and of an ugly color 
in ugly forms." 

We are placed here on earth for the 
sake of being changed from the state 
of natural men, who are in the love of 
self and of the world, into that of spiritual 
men, who are in the love of God and the 
neighbor; or, in other words, the love 
of our lives must be changed from a self- 
ish and worldly love to that of an un- 
selfish and neighborly love; and this 

246 



GENUINE LOVE 

means that we must learn to put aside 
all the obstructions which prevent us 
from receiving the Lord's divine, unself- 
ish love into our own hearts, as his little 
children, and giving it out in loving 
service to our fellow-men. When we 
become clear channels of our Father's 
divine, unselfish love, the ruling love 
of our lives becomes spiritual love and 
we become spiritual men. 

When we are in the natural love which 
belongs to our animal nature, we love 
those who love us, but we are apt to 
hate those who hate us; we are apt to 
love the people whom we like, but are 
cold and hard, and indifferent to those 
whom we dislike. The sin, and wicked- 
ness, and unhappiness of the world is 
due to our not keeping our hearts clean 
and open to receive God's love in its 

247 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

purity; and, because we all of us in- 
herit a tendency toward selfishness and 
worldliness, we must learn to put all 
that aside as an obstruction to life, — 
as sin against God, in order to be able 
to receive and transmit His love and 
vitality in its purity and strength. 

When we are in merely natural love, 
we love our own children, sometimes 
passionately, but we are more or less 
indifferent to the children of other peo- 
ple; we love our own with a sense of 
greedy possession, as extensions of our- 
selves, and we love all that they con- 
tribute to our parental pride and satis- 
faction; but, when we have recognized 
this sort of personal and family love of 
possession as selfish and greedy, and have 
shunned it as sin, then we begin to love 
our children with a better spirit. We 

248 



GENUINE LOVE 

learn to recognize and respect their in- 
dividuality as children of the Father, 
we begin to regard ourselves as trustees 
for our children and to realize that we 
are responsible for them to the Father 
of us all; while leading our children to 
obedience to the commandments, and 
requiring of them a proper respect for 
law, we do not impose our own wilful- 
ness upon them. Thus we make it 
easy for our children to grow out of 
natural dependence, which is necessary 
in childhood, into a state of voluntary 
obedience to the law, the love of which 
is freedom itself. Then, as they grow 
up, our relation as their parents will be 
changed to a more fraternal relation, as 
we all grow into the love of obeying the 
same principles together. The recip- 
rocal respect for each other's freedom 

249 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

which such unselfish friendship re- 
quires lays the foundation for eternal 
friendship in the life to come. An un- 
selfish love for our children which recog- 
nizes their individuality and respects 
their point of view, while always re- 
quiring a reverent obedience to law, 
extends in spirit beyond the limits of 
the family, to all the children with whom 
we come into relations of helpful service. 
Thus it may be proved that, by putting 
away the over-personal and selfish quality 
of our affections, our love is broadened 
and enriched both in its quality and 
scope, and comes nearer to the quality 
of our Father's love for us, which knows 
no invidious discriminations or favorit- 
isms and has " no variableness nor 
shadow of turning." 
The creative power of God and his 
250 



GENUINE LOVE 

Providence are working unceasingly on 
all the planes of life to bring about pro- 
ductiveness and usefulness according to 
the divine laws of order; and we cannot 
learn to love each other as our Lord is 
loving us, unless we learn to love, from 
our own free choice, these same laws of 
order which are necessary to the blessed- 
ness and beauty of life. True spiritual 
love is that which flows into our hearts 
from the Father, while the loves of self 
and of the world are being cast out; and 
this spiritual love is what is spoken of in 
the Bible as charity. It is a very differ- 
ent thing from any of the forms of nat- 
ural affection with which we are born, 
for we can only learn and receive true 
charity by overcoming temptation. This 
is what gives it its peculiar strength, 
and breadth, and permanence; for it is 

251 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

that good which flows into the will, 
and makes the will strong, when the 
opposite evil is being overcome and 
shunned as sin against God, We have 
the description of charity given us in 
St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, 
and he speaks of it as the one indispen- 
sable gift of the Christian life: 

" Though I speak with the tongues of 
men and of angels, and have not charity, 
I am become as sounding brass, or a 
tinkling cymbal. And though I have 
the gift of prophecy and understand 
all mysteries, and all knowledge; and 
though I have all faith, so that I could 
remove mountains, and have not char- 
ity, I am nothing. And though I be- 
stow all my goods to feed the poor, and 
though I give my body to be burned, 
and have not charity, it profiteth me 

252 



GENUINE LOVE 

nothing. Charity suffereth long, and 
is kind; charity envieth not; charity 
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 
doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh 
not her own, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in in- 
iquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; bear- 
eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth 
all things, endureth all things. " 

The strength, and gentleness, and pa- 
tience of charity, or spiritual love, comes 
from the fact that it is not a love of the 
emotions alone, but an unselfish love of 
the will, — it suffers long and is kind, 
because it has overcome the temptation 
to impatience and resentment; it does 
not vaunt itself, and is not puffed up, 
because it has overcome the temptation 
to conceit and arrogance; it does not 
behave itself unseemly, because it has 

253 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

overcome the temptation to disorderly 
carelessness; and so on, — by con- 
stantly overcoming the temptations that 
present themselves in the natural man, 
the inner or spiritual will is steadily 
strengthened, until it can bear all things, 
believe all things, hope all things, and 
endure all things; and thus it is seen to 
possess the qualities of our Father's un- 
selfish, steady, and permanent love from 
which it is derived. It is the Lord's 
love in our own hearts, which he gives 
us when we obey him by overcoming 
and casting out all the things that are 
against his grace and truth; and, with 
his love in our hearts, we can love each 
other as he has loved us. 

" This is my commandment, that ye 
love one another, as I have loved you." 



254 



Chapter XVI 
Summing Up 

TO sum up the subject, it would 
seem that the hyper-sensitiveness 
and suffering induced by nervous 
weakness furnishes, as it were, a magnify- 
ing-glass by which we may be taught to 
recognize our own selfishness and world- 
liness, which are otherwise covered up by 
the mask of moral dullness and com- 
placency characteristic of the average 
social life around us. 

If this self -revelation is accepted with 
as little resistance and rebellion as pos- 
sible, from obedience to the spirit of Chris- 

255 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

tian teaching, a new clearness of vision 
gradually takes the place of the confusion 
which is apt to accompany nervous suffer- 
ing. When we acknowledge our faults 
for the sake of correcting them with the 
least possible delay, and so changing our 
habits of mind and life, the self-knowl- 
edge so gained furnishes the key to a 
knowledge of other men, and so unravels 
many tangles and makes life much sim- 
pler and happier. 

An interesting fact about this new 
point of view is that it springs more 
from a change of heart — a more un- 
selfish spirit — than it does from any 
intellectual change of opinion; and in- 
deed the new point of view can be held 
in common by people of very various and 
differing opinions — even on the subject 
of religious faith. 

256 



SUMMING UP 

There is a spirit of tolerance charac- 
teristic of the Gospel which emphasizes 
the relative importance of unselfish and 
affectionate service as compared to mere 
matters of opinion. It suggests strongly 
the idea that our Father cares more about 
our obeying him in our relations to each 
other, than about our opinions concerning 
himself from a theological point of view. 
Disinterested obedience implies love, and 
true love brings with it its own light of 
faith. 

Ministers (or priests) have come for 
help with sick nerves and have proved 
that for years they had been " resisting 
evil " and disobeying Christ's teaching 
without realizing it; and yet they were 
keenly conscious of errors of doctrine on 
the part of those who did not profess 
their particular creed. A weak and blind 

257 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

tolerance of sin seems to accompany in- 
tolerance of opinion. 

Surely, if the churches were alive with 
the spirit of Christ — with the presence 
of the " Comforter " — they would have 
it in their power to ease some of the 
physical as well as spiritual sufferings of 
men. But many people are finding out 
that, for the most part, the churches 
have no such power, and that it is 
only as the individual soul personally 
follows and obeys the teachings of Christ, 
that he gets the help which the Gospel 
promises. He may be a member of this 
church or of that, or of no outward 
organization at all; if he loves God and 
serves the neighbor, he is, by that very 
fact, a member of that Universal Church 
which is the ' body " of Jesus Christ. 
Many men are leaving the churches 
258 



SUMMING UP 

because they do not find in them the 
spiritual nourishment which they need; 
and, this is largely because their worldli- 
ness robs them of spiritual power. 

The Churches seem to have forgotten 
that worldliness is a sin; and yet our 
Lord recognized its organized pride and 
selfishness, and declared that it is im- 
possible to serve both God and Mam- 
mon. 

We find different sets of churches with 
differing characteristics of worldliness, 
varying from the " family pride " of the 
u Apostolic succession " to the greed of 
political power. Individuals in all 
churches practically demonstrate in their 
lives the simplicity and affectionate sin- 
cerity of Christ's teaching, but how can 
ecclesiastical organizations convey the 
fineness and power of the Spirit through 

259 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

machinery which has become coarse and 
material? 

Pride is quite as hostile to the spirit 
of Christ as sensuality, and yet the 
churches pride themselves on their su- 
periority to each other from a historical, 
or intellectual, or social point of view. 
How far are they from the standard of 
the Lowly One who preferred to be re- 
jected of men that he might do his duty 
as the Son of God! 

Surely, one of these days, it will mani- 
festly be seen that the churches are right 
in so far as they radiate the spirit of 
Christ's loving tolerance and respect for 
men, and that they are wrong in so far 
as they uphold the spirit of exclusiveness 
and pride which was characteristic of the 
Pharisees. In the meantime all who 
strive to acknowledge and repent daily 

260 



SUMMING UP 

of their sins may join hands — to what- 
ever churches they may or may not 
belong — in upholding the spirit of his 
life and radiating the sunshine of his 
presence, — not by talking and not by 
feeling, but by doing his will in daily life 
from love of him and of one another. 

Surely, in the humility of the Gospel 
we get nearer to God; and that is 
why — when weighed down by the suf- 
fering of sick nerves — we understand 
and respond to his words : " Come unto 
me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden 
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
upon you and learn of me; for I am meek 
and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. 55 And with humility 
come gratitude and happiness. 



261 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

IT must be remembered that the exer- 
cises given below are only useful as 
means to an end — but as such they 
are, for a certain time, essential. 

If we drop contractions of the body, 
which have been made by resistances of 
the mind, merely to make way for new 
contractions as the effect of new resist- 
ances, we are only cleaning our house 
that it may be occupied by " other spirits 
worse than the first." 

To drop the contractions in the arms: 

(1) Sitting position. Raise each arm 

heavily from the shoulder; and, when it is 

265 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

raised to a horizontal position in front, 
let it drop heavily. 

Repeat this until you have a sense 
of your arms lying quietly in your lap 
— by their own weight. Try to listen to 
or talk with others without the slightest 
contraction in your arms. 

(2) To drop the contractions in the 
back of the neck and spine. 

(a) Drop the head forward very slowly 
and heavily, letting it " melt " — like 
a wax candle in a warm room — when 
the chin is resting on the chest let the 
head hang there heavily — growing more 
and more heavy — for about a minute — 
and then bring it up very slowly, with a 
loose jaw; and, when it is erect, take a 
long breath through the nose. Repeat 
this exercise three or four times. 

(6) When the head has been dropped 
266 



APPENDIX 

as far as it can be comfortably, let its 
weight seem to carry the body forward 
— but do not bend from the hips, for 
then the spine will not be properly 
stretched. When the head and body 
have dropped as far as they will, let them 
stay in that position for about a minute 
and then begin and raise them very 
slowly as if the motive power were in the 
seat of the chair — or down cellar — or 
in the middle of the earth. Do not raise 
the head until the chest is as high as it 
can be without the head's coming up. 
When erect take a long quiet breath. 

(3) To drop the contractions in the 
legs. 

Lie flat on the back and draw each heel 
up, slowly bending the knee and feeling 
the effort entirely in the hip. When 
the knee is bent so that the sole of the 

267 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

foot is resting entirely on the ground, let 
the leg swing from side to side loosely 
from the hip — and then very slowly push 
the foot down until at last the leg drops 
loosely to its full length. This exercise 
should be done with each leg, alter- 
nately, but not with the two together. 
It should be repeated several times. 

(4) To loosen all inner contractions 
by means of deep breathing. 

Lie flat on the back — on the hard 
floor, if possible — settle heavily and 
inhale a long, quiet breath through the 
nose; open the mouth lazily and exhale 
through the open mouth, as if trying to 
melt something; then bring the lower 
jaw up slowly and loosely while you 
breathe naturally through your nose. 
This exercise should be repeated in a 
leisurely way for fifteen minutes. 

268 



APPENDIX 

There should be a sense of leisure in 
all the motions — drop every thought 
and every interest except the exercises, 
and make somewhat of a ceremony of 
them, — the idea being to gain so strong 
a sense of quiet and of healthy relaxation 
that you can recall it whenever it is 
needed throughout the day or night. 
A steady practice of the exercises takes 
one toward a normal equilibrium and 
makes one more and more sensitive to the 
unnecessary tension which is always the 
physical cause of nervous illness — and, 
as one establishes a standard of quiet and 
ease, and grows sensitive to all opposite 
states, the ability to recall the standard 
acquired by means of the exercises grows, 
so that sooner or later the brain works 
almost automatically; that is, strain, in- 
stead of as heretofore breeding more 

269 



NEW NERVES FOR OLD 

strain, becomes a reminder to the brain 
to relax. 

Only the most fundamental exercises 
for relaxation are here given — there may 
be hundreds more, but all would be deriv- 
atives of these. There are also exercises 
for rhythmic motions of the body, but 
those cannot easily be described in words, 
and are not necessary to such a work as 
this — for if we get free from the super- 
fluous tension in our bodies, and out of 
all strain, Nature takes care of our 
equilibrium in motion; and then also — 
or indeed first — if the body, through 
dropping its physical contraction, is made 
to be a responsive servant, the attitude 
of the heart and mind bring it into rhyth- 
mic action. 

The exercises in relaxation are a neces- 
sity, — if we want to overcome the ab- 

270 



APPENDIX 

normal habits of nervous tension, — but 
those in rhythm and motion, without be- 
ing absolutely necessary, are pleasant 
and helpful. 



THE END 



BOOKS BY ANNIE PAYSON CALL 



HOW TO LIVE QUIETLY 

IN this volume Miss Call states another law which is much 
more important than that given in "Power Through 
Repose," the author's first work, which greatly benefited 
hundreds of readers. 

This law, like the first one, is simple and deeply practical, 
but now almost forgotten for want of use, because, for one 
reason, obedience to it seems at first to be so difficult. If 
people will give their attention to it and work to obey it, 
many more cases of ill health can be cured than have already 
been helped by " Power Through Repose," and they can 
never come to a standstill but must work on toward increas- 
ing health and happiness. 

BRAIN POWER FOR BUSINESS MEN . 

SIMPLE and direct advice to enable business men to save 
nervous force and thus gain more wholesome and vigor- 
ous brain power. The author is conversant with business 
methods and distinguishes those which drain the vitality from 
those which really renew the strength. 

She plainly points out the power of the more wholesome 
methods for training men's minds in away to bring them 
more intelligent freedom and more life. 

CONTENTS: I. The Strain of Business; II. Business Rush; III. Business 
Worries; IV. Competition; V. Other Men; VI. The Strain of Debt; 
VII. The Remedy. 

A MAN OF THE WORLD 

A thoughtful and helpful study of the attitude toward life 
which becomes a student in God's school. — Congregationalist, 
Boston. 



BOOKS BY ANNIE PAYSON CALL 
POWER THROUGH REPOSE 

MISS CALL'S first book was written mainly with the 
aim of showing men and women how to throw off their 
strain in the mechanical actions of their lives and to live and 
move more as if they were oiled, — more as nature intended 
they should live and move. In fact, " Power through Re- 
pose" I represents; the rudiments of healthy nerve training, 
and, although it touches on mental causes, it does so very 
slightly. 

In his "Talks to Teachers on Psychology," Prof. William 
James termed the subject of this book the gospel of relaxation 
and said that " it ought to be in the hands of every teacher 
and student in America." 

AS A MATTER OF COURSE 

IN this, her second book, Miss Call goes more deeply into 
mental causes of nervous strain. She recognizes that 
there are certain simple relations of every day life and simple 
circumstances, which men and women have been in the habit 
of meeting with strain, when a very little attention to the 
subject would enable them to see the unnecessary burdens 
they were carrying and to cast them entirely aside. 

Our most simple relations to others and to the circum- 
stances of life could be kept well oiled, as a matter of course, 
if we once went to work with deliberate and well aimed 
attention to change our habits. 

THE FREEDOM OF LIFE 

UNDERLYING all this are great principles of life. Here 
is where the nerves touch the soul on the other side, 
and where the perverted character of the man who wants 
only his own way, or the universal habit of fear, keeps the 



BOOKS BY ANNIE PAYSON CALL 

nerves in such a strain that these principles, which are just 
as much fixed laws as any law of physics, cannot work 
through him. 

Man is trying to live and be happy in disobedience to law. 
He can no more really do it than he can make water run up 
hill. It is more in ignorance of these principles than in wilful 
disobedience to them that most people suffer, and Miss Call 
wrote "The Freedom of Life'* to enlighten all who would 
listen as to the cause of mental strain and how to drop it 

EVERY DAY LIVING 

THIS book is valuable, more because it takes examples 
from real life, examples of people who have suffered 
from nervous strain in the work of their lives or in their 
relations with others, and all because of their ignorance of 
the real cause of their pain. 

When one sees and understands the principle underlying 
these concrete examples, it is as simple to find and use the 
right remedy as it is to stop a baby's crying by finding the 
pin that was pricking it. 

NERVES AND COMMON SENSE 

CONCRETE examples of how the laws work and results 
gained from obedience to them are of the most practical 
service in illustrating such useful principles as Miss Call has 
put before the world, and in her latest book, "Nerves and 
Common Sense," concrete examples are multiplied without 
repetition in a way that must carry conviction to any listening 
mind. 

Anecdotes are told in which every day problems are put 
vividly before us and those same every day problems are 
practically solved. People all [about us are suffering unnec- 
essarily from nervous strain and nervous illness which could 



BOOKS BY ANNIE PAYSON CALL 

be so entirely relieved that they might, so to speak, throw 
off their strain and attend to the business of life with a free 
and living interest, if only they would appreciate the validity 
of these simple laws which Miss Call explains and illustrates 
with such remarkable clearness. 

MISS CALL'S BOOKS AS A WHOLE 

Every word she writes has a practical value, and her five 
books, although they all relate to the one subject, approach 
it in ways so different that each one of the five books helps 
to a better understanding of the other four. They lead from 
one to the other as one would naturally be led from the first 
discovery of a law to a wider and deeper understanding of 
its application. They show the way to human freedom, they 
are full of good sound ABC sense, and can lift the burdens 
from many thousand men and women. 

A FEW OPINIONS 

" Power through Repose " ought to be in the hands of at 
least eight out of every ten men and women now living and 
working on this continent. — The Outlook, New York. 

" As a Matter of Course" is to further help nervous sufferers 
along the road to well-being and is rich in restful suggestions. 

— Boston Transcript. 

" The Freedom of Life " should be widely and thoughtfully 
read.— New York Times. 

Many of the problems of home life may be solved by fol- 
lowing the simple directions given in M Every Day Living." 

— Christian Intelligencer, New York. 

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